HOUSTON, TX The 2019 International Education Biennial conference will be held at Lone Star College Nov. 15.

The event features presentations from thought leaders in international education representing institutions across Southeast Texas, collaboration spaces for faculty, students, administrators, a keynote luncheon speaker, and a student poster contest.

Houston remains the most diverse city in the nation, said Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., LSC chancellor. Lone Star College hosting this event highlights the power higher education has to create global connections.

The 2019 International Education Biennial conference takes place Nov. 15 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Lone Star Community Building, 5000 Research Forest Drive, The Woodlands. Tickets are $10 for students and $40 for community members, and can be purchased in advance here.

Elizabeth Trovall, immigration reporter for Houston Public Media, will present the keynote address. Trovall joined the News 88.7 team after several years abroad in Santiago, Chile, where she reported on business, energy, politics and culture.

This conference is for anyone who believes higher education is the key to building bridges, said Head.

The event will also offer an F-1 Visa student application workshop for international students seeking to study at LSC. Prospective students will be able to receive information about LSC International Student Services and can also bring their F-1 application documents and receive an admission decision at the event.

Each LSC campus offers personalized international student services including F-1 Visa Admissions, an English as a Second Language/English for Speakers of Other Languages ESL/ESOL program, International Student Advisors, and a competitive, enriched curriculum option through the Honors College.

The LSC International Education Biennial is held in partnership with the Texas Gulf Coast International Education Consortium which is comprised of Alvin College, Brazosport College, College of the Mainland, Galveston College, Lee College, San Jacinto College, Wharton County Junior College and Lone Star College.

LSC welcomed more than 2,900 international students in fall 2019.

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Lone Star College to Host International Education Conference - Woodlands Online

The university is often portrayed as a place where young men and women loaf freely on a soft, grassy quad under a noble bell tower. Lecture halls and dormitories circle them, busy with faculty members and students coming and going on campus.

Hovering over this idyllic image is the online campus, where students rarely, if ever, set foot on manicured lawns. Digital students study at home or while commuting to and from work, often late at night after the kids are asleep.

Before the invasion of the internet, the university comprised a secure, single identity; nowwith about a third of college students onlinethe American college is bifurcated.

When I first entered the virtual university a couple of decades ago as dean of online learning at Stevens Institute of Technology, I imagined, apart from instruction, that online and on campus in most respects would be pretty much the same. Surprisingly, just over twenty years later, things didnt turn out that way in practice. Like fraternal twins, online and in-person campuses are the same, but different.

Delivery methods are hardly the only difference between face-to-face and virtual instruction. A deeper look reveals strikingly different economies and cultures, student populations, status of faculty members, curriculum, infrastructure and even tuition.

Work represents the principal difference that separates digital from face-to-face students. Online, about 80 percent work full or part time. In glaring contrast, just 25 percent of residential students work full time, a key economic difference that sets them apart from most academic consequences that follow. Its A Tale of Two Cities, with mostly middle-class, 18-year-olds taking freshman seats on campus, while adult men and women (often more women than men), many married with children at home, occupy most virtual slots.

And online students are more likely than on-campus students to be the first in their families to go to college.

In other words, the digital university welcomes older, working, nontraditional learners who gravitate to online degrees to overcome workforce obstacles that prevent many without a degree from earning their fair share in todays often-bewildering, post-industrial economy.

The fastest growing population in higher education is adult learners, now comprising nearly half of the total learner population. Working professionals have vastly different needs than those of the traditional student," said Nelson Baker, dean of professional education at Georgia Tech in an American Council of Education report last month, acknowledging that college leaders are uneasy over the inability of conventional higher ed to respond effectively to fierce market forces. Baker is also the new president of UPCEA, the association for professional, continuing, and online education.

Online faculty members, too, are not drawn from the same pool as those on campus.

Physical campuses already have a growing number of part-time adjunct facultywhich now represent about three-quarters of university facultywith a critical mass of full-time and tenured professors. But the situation online tilts far more to adjuncts, with very likely 90 percent or more in that category. Digging as hard as I could, I could not find reliable data revealing how many of them teach online. But from my own experience, and from my knowledge of hiring practices at for-profit and other schools with large online student enrollments (where little or no research is conducted), the number of full-time faculty teaching online is very thin, and at some colleges, very likely close to zero

Hoping to attract budget-stretched families, colleges are struggling with spiraling tuition, testing inventive ways to damp it down without going bust. With continuing pressure of ever-escalating costs at private institutions and deep cuts at state schools, bringing prices down is no easy trick. Some have tried a slight-of-hand strategy, called tuition resets, in which colleges announce a cut, only to roll back grants and scholarships, keeping the net price just where it was before they marketed enticing, but deceptive, lower prices. Other college leaders chase scarce philanthropic dollars to fund tuition cuts, so far with limited success.

Boxed-in on campus, some universities have turned to virtual degrees to wriggle out of their tuition squeeze. A number of colleges have partnered with big MOOC providers, principally Coursera and edX, to offer large-scale online courses at far lower prices, in part to attract new students to their higher-priced online degrees.

Thirty-six steeply discounted masters programs are now available from top institutions on such platforms, including from the University of Michigan, GeorgiaTech and Imperial College London, with tuition ranging from a startlingly low $8,000 to a modestly high $42,000 for a complete masters from many notable colleges. Just the other day, Purdue University, in partnership with Kaplan and edX, announced three new MOOC-based engineering degrees for under $25,000.

In a surprise move, the University of Pennsylvania, one of the nations most-selective institutions, is offering a nearly fully online bachelors in applied arts and sciences, among the first of the Ivies to offer a virtual undergraduate degree. To top it off, UPenn is also extending an unprecedented discount, cutting its online tuition by $1,000 per credit.

Admittedly, on the whole, virtual tuition is largely the same as on campusoccasionally even a bit more expensive. But MOOC-based degrees are just at the starting line of what appears to be a rush to hang discount tags on online degrees.

With enrollment in residential programs stalling, colleges have jettisoned some on-campus programs, replacing them with online delivery only. The University of Illinois Gies School of Business, housed on its flagship Urbana-Champaign campus, for instance, recently announced that it will stop delivering its on-campus MBA, offering its fast-growing online degree instead. Enrollment in the schools online MBA, launched in 2016, jumped from 114 initially to 1,955 today. The 98 MBA students stranded on campus must now move online to complete their degrees. Tuition for the online degree, called an iMBA, is about $22,000. The previous on-campus equivalent was priced at about $80,000.

A key difference between the residential campus and its online sibling is infrastructure. A conventional college requires enormous investments in soft, grassy grounds. Add security, dormitories, parking, gyms, cafeterias, heat and snow removal in winter, air-conditioning in summerlet alone classrooms, labs, and sports facilitiesand the burden is often far more than what is required to support a luxury resort. Online, operating only in the air above, without a physical campus below, academic investments are limited to less than a handful of budget lines--instruction, course design and edtech software.

One of the more onerous tasks as dean of an online unit at a conventional university is to convince senior academic officers to pry open the schools stubborn budget to pay for digital recruitment. Many high-ranking professors disdain marketing, and so they keep promotional funds locked away, thinking it vulgar to pursue enrollments too nakedly. Our students will find us without us begging, they often say.

With more than 130,000 mostly virtual students, Southern New Hampshire University, moved from a sleepy New England college in just 16 years to one of the three biggest universities in the U.S., alongside Arizona State University and Western Governors University. While a number of strategic steps helped the university scale up, the biggest push came from unprecedented investments in digital recruitment. Last year, Southern New Hampshire spent $139 million on advertising and promotion, with almost $47 million going to Google alone and just over $85 million to a media buying agency.

For years, many observers wondered when the digital revolution would overrun the university as it has commerce elsewhere. In my neighborhood in Manhattanand in cities and towns across Americamom-and-pop shops and even national brand stores are collapsing, as if swept away by hurricane Katrina. Amazons indifferent digital finger has carelessly pushed most of them over. While the academic economy has not been as severely shaken yet, the recent ACE report warns that the inability of American higher ed to respond effectively may have equally disruptive consequences in the future.

Its a case of sibling rivalry in which the digital younger child is aggressively outdoing her older, favored residential sister. The higher ed family is puzzled as to how to deal with the strain.

See more here:
Higher Ed Has Now Split Into Dual Economies: Online and Traditional - EdSurge

The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction launched an online continuing education program. The program is certified by the American Psychological Association. Madelyn Knight Buy Photos

The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction launched an online continuing education program, which is certified by the American Psychological Association. The program began Oct. 4.

These courses can be taken by psychologists for professional credit and by anyone interested in learning more about each topic, according to an IU press release.

The program is led by Jessica Hille, the newly-appointed assistant director for education. This initiative is part of Kinseys overall mission to promote better understanding of human sexuality and relationships through research, outreach and education, according to their website.

Kinsey faculty designed their lectures based on American Psychological Association standards for people to earn professional credit. This is the first time the Kinsey Institute will offer education for APA credits. Normally, the institute staff attends conferences or organizesevents at IU for education opportunities, like the Kinsey Institute Lecture Series, Hille said.

The initiative includes modules on sexual consent, gender, sexuality, dating and casual sex, trauma and love. Lecturers include Justin Garcia, acting director of the Kinsey Institute, among other IU and Kinsey faculty members.

"The Kinsey Institute is a leading source of research and education on human sexuality," Garcia said. "Our new continuing education initiative is an opportunity to share information with those who want to learn more and who otherwise may not have received education and training on sexuality.

The programs are available to the public through IU Expand, a university portal. It costs $30 for courses worth one credit and $40 for 1.5 credit courses.

Some current lecture topics include Beyond binaries, The healing power of love: An oxytocin hypothesis and Consent and coercion: Sexual assault, sexual coercion and unwanted sex. All courses currently offered are taught by Kinsey staff or affiliate staff from across the country and world.

The continuing education program has been in the making for over two years now, Hille said. Hille has led the program since her appointment in August. This program is important because the APA requires continuing education for its members and these courses allow for that, Hille said.

"The new education program, including the continuing education initiative, will allow us to focus our efforts and provide new educational opportunities to fill critical gaps in knowledge," Hille said.

In the next months and years, Kinsey will add more lectures to its online portal. In the spring, courses on consent communication and consensual non-monogamy will be added to the course catalogue, Hille said.

In addition to the continuing education program, Kinsey has partnered with the IU School of Medicine to offer a Human Sexuality and Health Scholarly Concentration for medical students at IU. Kinsey also added a Ph.D. minor in the sexual science research methods in human sexuality. Other upcoming education initiatives will include a research blog and podcasts.

We are excited and honored to provide this new service and to continue to have a leadership role in encouraging greater understanding and acceptance of sexual and gender diversity," Garcia said.

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People gathered to hear retired Lt. Col. Davis at the Sample Gates.

IU is investigating what caused the outage.

He was walking his beagle and golden retriever.

Excerpt from:
Kinsey Institute offers continuing education initiative - Indiana Daily Student

Nike Lunar Flyknit HTM Milano

Source: Farfetch

(This story is part of the Weekend Brief edition of the Evening Brief newsletter. To sign up for CNBC's Evening Brief, .)

Here are some of the best analyst calls on Wall Street this week:

Morgan Stanley said it is "cautious" about the 2019 holiday season due to a "difficult" spring season. The firm said it prefers active apparel and footwear, which makes Nike a top pick heading into the holidays. Morgan Stanley said it liked the company's direct-to-consumer "transformation efforts" among other things.

"In particular, we expect NKE to be an outsized winner within our coverage this holiday season, driven primarily by its ongoing direct-to consumer transformation efforts, particularly Nike.com, NikePlus memberships, and its SNKRS app. We note 4Q typically experiences the largest increases in eCommerce activity and penetration, which should benefit not only NKE revenues, but margins as well, as we estimate NKE's online business carries a 900-1000 bps higher EBIT margin than wholesale."

Stephens initiated coverage of The Trade Desk which is an online advertising marketplace. The firm gave the company an overweight rating and said it had a more "defendable" business model than Netflix. It also said the company had "fewer regulatory risks" than Alphabet or Facebook.

"We believe investors should own TTD the leading, independent demand-side platform in the digital advertising ecosystem because it is a more distributed, defendable and profitable business model than NFLX or ROKU and it carries fewer regulatory risks than GOOGL or FB. The stock is volatile and expensive , but we are initiating coverage with an OW/V rating and $250 PT, which assumes the stock will trade at 11.1x EV/21E sales and 14.3x gross profit a year from today."

DA Davidson said the consumer electronics manufacturer was a "natural" acquisition candidate for Apple after Alphabet's recent purchase of Fitbit. The firm said it expects shares to "appreciate" in value and said it is similar to Apple in that it has "product quality" and "design acumen."

"On the bad block of hardware companies, we consider Sonos to be: 1) the best house on the block and 2) the one adjacent to the mansion on the neighboring block, Apple. Similar to Apple, it: 1) makes products that we believe are, for the most part, superior to the competition, 2) has an eye for design, with products that look better than the competitions', and 3) boasts a premium brand that enables it, along with the aforementioned reasons, to sell its products at higher prices than others."

Morgan Stanley said it sees more consolidation in the online education space and that a "$100 billion dollar market cap lies online." The firm singled out Tal Education Group which is a company headquartered in China that delivers after-school tutoring programs for primary and secondary school students. Morgan Stanley also said it see a $40 billion dollar "opportunity" in the U.S. offline business.

"Higher ceiling of online education potential could drive TAL to be a US$100bn company long term: We believe the online education market will be more consolidated. We look for TAL to take a 15% share of the K12 online after-school tutoring market (we estimate it will reach US$160bn), and to achieve a 12.5% OPM in 2030. At 25x long-term P/E, TAL's online business would have a long-term market value of US$60bn. Further, we expect the offline business will grow to US$40bn in 2030."

Oppenheimer said it is staying "positive" longer-term on Wayfair despite a recent decline in shares for the furniture and home-goods e-commerce company. The company recently reported disappointing earnings amid a concern about slowing sales growth. The firm said it was keeping its outperform rating but that shares could be in the "penalty box" for a bit longer.

"Shares of Outperform-rated Wayfair have struggled lately, as the market digests indications of weakening top-line expansion and has turned more discerning toward high-growth, less-than-profitable business models. We have reviewed carefully Wayfair and our longer-term, positive call on its equity. Shares could remain in the "penalty box" for a while longer. That said, for a few key reasons, we view the W business model as intact and longer-term prospects for shares as compelling: 1) Still impressive top-line growth is apt to rebound somewhat as transitory pressures abate; 2) In coming quarters, operating leverage is likely to improve as investment spending eases; and 3) Shares are now tracking consistent with recent trough levels."

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Here are the best analyst calls of the week on Wall Street including Nike, Sonos - CNBC

Ottawa University announced that the universitys Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program has been granted accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). CCNE accreditation is a nongovernmental, peer-review process that operates in accordance with nationally recognized standards established for the practice of nursing.

We are extremely pleased at this affirmation of our outstanding nursing program, Ottawa University Chancellor Kevin Eichner said. Many of our bachelors graduates have been anxious for this added approval, as has been the case for all of us at Ottawa. We are very proud of this program, and appreciative of the CCNE designation. This is a major milestone in our continued efforts to expand our health care offerings at a time when our nation and the world needs more of the type of values-centered education Ottawa University provides.

The initial five-year accreditation, usually the maximum accreditation duration new programs can receive, comes following a rigorous process that included submission of a comprehensive self-study, a site visit by the CCNE accrediting team, and a thorough review of the MSN curriculum and processes. CCNE ensures the quality and integrity of academic nursing programs through its robust accreditation process, serving the public interest by assessing and identifying programs that engage in effective educational practices. The accreditation process is self-regulatory, and supports and encourages continuing self-assessment by nursing programs.

We are extremely pleased and proud to announce that our MSN program has earned CCNE accreditation, Dr. Kathy Kump, OUs director of nursing, said. Accreditation from the CCNE means Ottawa University is poised to help the national effort to address the critical shortage of nursing as well as continue to prepare nursing professionals for leadership positions. We are grateful for the commitment and contributions of our university leadership, experienced faculty and the nursing advisory board in this effort to earn CCNE accreditation, Kump said. We are proud of the role our nursing graduates will play in helping improve the access to health care nationwide.

In addition to the MSN, OUs nursing program offers the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-BSN) and a BSN through a Concurrent Enrollment Program (CEP) with partner institutions, including Maricopa Community College nursing programs in Arizona and Ivy Tech Community College nursing programs in Indiana. These nursing students complete coursework for an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in Nursing degree and a Bachelor of Science (BSN) in Nursing degree at the same time.

Furthermore, OU partners with Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College and Neosho County (Kan.) Community College with its Transfer Advantage program to provide opportunities for students who are pursuing an associates degree in nursing or a related health-care field.

Visit http://www.ottawa.edu/nursing to learn more about the newly accredited MSN program, and all of OUs nursing degree options.

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Ottawa University earns accreditation for online masters in nursing program - AZ Big Media

Opinion Nov 7, 2019 Opinion

By Taylor Johnston, Contributor

We are currently within one of the greatest eras for technology. Many jobs are becoming automated, there are online-only industries and our cell phones are so multiuse that they can act as a small computer. The appeal of online education and the concept of going paperless has been rising based on its flexibility and cheaper costs. Some universities are even introducing online degrees. However, is it all as amazing as it seems?

There are two types of online education: self-paced and structured. Self-paced gives all the course content to the student at once, but it must be completed within a certain number of months. Therefore, the student can work as quickly or leisurely as they like. There are ministry high school programs such as those taken through the Independent Learning Centre that have adopted this self-paced format and have been proven to be very efficient, which has been attributed to allowing students can learn at their own pace.

While structured education is also a common method of online teaching, it can also present more flaws. A structured online course attempts to mimic in-class courses by giving students access to content material on a week by week basis. While some students may like structured learning to help them stay on track of class, it can also be less beneficial for many students, as it doesnt give the student the freedom of learning at their own pace. As a result, structured learning can add stress for students who like to learn at a different pace than the one that the course is providing.

Many Ontario universities offer select elective courses in the online-structured format, which hold many attractive qualities in terms of flexibility and the opportunity for another in-class course to be added to a students schedule. However, do the pros of online education outweigh the cons?

One apparent difference between online education and in-person education is the amount of interaction you have with your instructors. This may have you thinking, In non-online classes I am just one student in a lecture hall with hundreds of others, and there is not that much opportunity for a one-on-one relationship anyways. Wouldnt online courses be the same? However, even the experience of going to lectures holds an added level of value as you get to hear the in the moment thoughts and opinions of your professor that are otherwise non-existent in most online courses and degrees.

One apparent difference between online education and in-person education is the amount of interaction you have with your instructors.

Furthermore, in-person education usually gives more opportunities for office hours where students questions can be asked and answered. The main method of communication for students that want to talk to professors and teaching assistants throughout an online course is strictly email, where communication can often be misunderstood and unclear compared to in-person conversations. Although some people may find office hours to be a waste of time, other students find them very beneficial to their education and learning and unfortunately, you cannot get that from online education.

The main method of communication for students that want to talk to professors and teaching assistants throughout an online course is strictly email, where communication can often be misunderstood and unclear compared to in-person conversations.

Online education provides the opportunity to access education regardless of how far away you live from university. However, the benefits of in-person schooling still outweighs the online system due to the added benefits of being able to physically interact with your professors. With in-person courses, you are able to talk to classmates and meet others, which can be a huge benefit to your learning. Still, it is important to recognize that as students, we can still reap the benefits of online education as it provides a bridge for those who are unable to physically attend lectures.

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OPINION: Online education isn't always more effective - The Silhouette

We are living in a world where everyone is surrounded by digital technology and the digital revolution is reaching new heights. Rightly said by Mr Nirmal Gehlot, In the era of smart gadgets and evolution of digital innovation, technology will play the most important role towards betterment of the educational process. He is the man behind Utkarsh classes group in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. He is bridging the education and technology together and has put in his best efforts to bring smart education in the country. However, the government is already working on smart education policy in India, which will bring in a lot of edutech companies in India.

Founded by Gehlot and his family in 2002 in Rajasthan, Utkarsh classes was an offline education destination where students got educated to prepare for competitive exams and other major government exams. The classes helped and succeeded in bringing out many private jobs aspirants thus establishing its goodwill of more than 17 years of proven tutorials. Utkarsh group commands the biggest market share of approx 68% in competitive exam aspirants in Rajasthan. Nirmal Gehlot has always gone his way out for the betterment of students by providing them with expert faculties, observation mechanism and latest technology in the edutech segment.

The past 4 years Utkarsh classes have set a benchmark for itself. In 2015, they started using the smart classroom technology which was followed by online education with smart practice sessions in 2016. The next year in 2017 saw the birth of Utkarsh Studios and in the year 2018, Gehlot came up with innovation and brought a mobile app education system of Utkarsh classes for its registered students. Besides this, they also launched a video streaming mobile app with more than 20,000 lectures library available for its registered users. The mobile app has been downloaded by more than 5 lakh users and has awarded more than 20,000 paid registered users all over India. Having its presence on YouTube as well, Utkarsh Classes Jodhpur has more than 2.45 million subscribers which have recorded with an average of 6.92 lakh views for many of its trendsetter video lessons.

Moreover, Utkarsh classes group has not diluted stake to outsiders or investors and is completely funded by the founders as a positive revenue business model. Mr Gehlot is running the education institute for about two decades with more than 300 online faculties, dedicated IT team, ultramodern classrooms, live session stations with pan India presence. The edutech market in India was rightly discovered by the advisors of Utkarsh advisory board with the introduction of a mobile app, online streaming classes and live education sessions. Nirmal Gehlots classes are now considered as the one-stop destination where students prepare themselves for competitive exams, civil services exams and other competitive exams. Theres no doubt in saying that Utkarsh classes is building a better tomorrow by training todays young generation in the best possible ways.

Originally posted here:
Nirmal Gehlot's Utkarsh Classes In Jodhpur Brings Innovation And Is Changing The Scenario Of Online Education - CloutNews

The NIU team at Illinois Interactive Report Cards released a new website on Thursday, Oct. 10 Illinois Postsecondary Profiles (IPP). The website provides a wealth of information about postsecondary schools, which include community colleges, universities and a variety of professional training schools in our state. Users can search schools by criteria and explore enrollment, affordability, progress and completion data. The site has been produced with funding from the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board.

In the spring of 2018, NIU tapped Alan Clemens, a long-time instructor in the College of Education and a researcher in the P-20 Center of the Division of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development, to direct the team and develop the new IPP site.

Clemens describes the current version of the IPP as the first step in a new approach to present information about postsecondary education in Illinois. He continues, While the IPP site bears some resemblance to similar websites, the design is distinctive and lays the foundation for future innovation.

Because the IPP is getting richer data in many cases than is reported at the federal level, the site includes a unique combination of features: longitudinal data for many data points and the ability to break down results by subgroup. The IPP has quickly evolved from pilot project to published site with explosive potential, according to Clemens.

Our focus-group work suggests that public policy makers and researchers will be interested in looking at the data. Were also getting a lot of feedback that users of the site will likely be high school counselors, students and families. Were excited to be working on a tool that could have an impact in such diverse communities across the state.

Clemens says one of the goals of the Illinois Interactive Report Cards is to cement the state of Illinois position as a leader in online data initiatives as he and his team continue to expand both the Illinois Report Card and the Illinois Postsecondary Profiles.

Aspirationally, wed like to offer fully linked data across pre-K through 12th grade institutions, postsecondary institutions and early job placements, Clemens says. Its one thing for a high school counselor to look at demographic breakdowns of specific postsecondary institutions, but how much more powerful is it to be able to look at your data and say, Where have our students gone? What has been their persistence and graduation rate? Having that data related to the actual performance in aggregate of your own students is such a powerful decision-making tool.

To make the site accessible for a wide variety of users, the IPP team is organizing the data to tell a story.

Data is often presented flea-market style, where its laid out in tables and you hunt and peck, table by table, until you find something thats meaningful to you and then you grab it and hold on, he says. Were being extremely careful to find a balance between describing the data to make it understandable and over-editing in a way that favors one set of institutions or outcomes over another.

Clemens emphasizes that, as much as he enjoys working with data, the people who will benefit from it are the most important factor.

If we do everything we can to facilitate the provision of accurate and timely data, people will make better informed decisions, and we will have facilitated the success of the next generation of Illinois graduates.

Link:
NIU develops online tools for new Illinois postsecondary education website - NIU Today

Lucas Hunziger, Director of Technical Education at Highland Community College Atchison Technical Center was recently recognized by the Kansas Board of Regents for excellence in Carl Perkins Career & Technical Education reporting. The award recognizes reporting and dedication within Kansas education institutions receiving Perkins funds. The award was one of two given in the state.

This recognition is very validating. It shows us that what we are doing with reporting and documenting our use of Perkins funding is on the right path and we will continue down with that, said Hunziger of the award.

The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, or Carl Perkins funding, focuses on improving the academic and technical achievements of students in career and technical education (CTE) programs in both high school and college.

Hunziger also noted, technical education is exploding due to the demand for skilled employees. Highland offers programs that are meeting the needs of business and industry in the region.

To learn more about career and technical training at Highland Community College visit highlandcc.edu.

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HCC director of technical education recognized by Kansas Board of Regents - Hiawatha World

In February, an Instagram account called @BallerBusters cropped up and began wreaking havoc on the flashy Instagram entrepreneur community.

Its goal: To expose phony entrepreneurs. Using a mix of screen-shotted receipts, memes and crowdsourced information from followers, the account seeks out people who dont act their wage.

Often, these are people who call themselves entrepreneurs and who brag about their money, cars, watches or influence, but seem as if they dont have the cash to back it up.

In many cases, these #FlexOffenders, as the account likes to call them, use this veneer of a lifestyle to sell mentorship, membership or online classes.

Recently, the account targeted a drop-shipping entrepreneur who says he is a teenager. He claimed to have purchased an $8 million penthouse; BallerBusters found photographs showing that the home was an Airbnb rental property.

Another target was a young thought leader who sold entrepreneurship courses and then blocked complaining critics, including those who said they were owed refunds.

BallerBusters also regularly calls out entrepreneurs for showing off fake watches and posing in rented private jets.

Instagram has always been good for all kinds of braggers. But the administrator behind @BallerBusters believes a new breed of scammer is running rampant on social media: the young business guru.

They are pervasive on Instagram. Their avatars feature corporate head shots or photos of themselves onstage, apparently mid-TED Talk. Their online following looks huge; that can be because they have bought a large amount of followers. Their feeds portray a lavish life full of cars, money and women used as props.

All these spoils can be yours, they promise for a price.

Its a lot of rented cars, ride-share jet company photos making it look like they own the jet, said Buster Scher. He is the 19-year-old founder of Hoops Nation, a sports media publication, who has been an avid follower of the account since the beginning.

Snake-oil salesmen is the best description for the type of people hes busting, said the entrepreneur Jason Wong, 22, another fan. Theyre preying on kids who want to become entrepreneurs and offering mentorship services in exchange for thousands of dollars and not delivering on their promises.

The person who runs the @BallerBusters account said they had heard from hundreds of people who believe they have been scammed. (The New York Times agreed to grant the admin anonymity; they believed they would be targeted.)

These teenagers know that making money on the internet is possible, and often they have friends who have done it. But they end up paying for bad advice.

Theyre flaunting private planes, fake watches, posing with all this stuff and creating a life for themselves on social media thats not true, the administrator behind @BallerBusters said, of the people who the account chooses to expose.

These young people share this common thought that school doesnt work, Stephen T. Johnson, an entrepreneur and a founder of Flipmass, a monetization platform for social publishers, said of followers of the account.

He added that the fact that many faux entrepreneurs are young themselves just makes their sales pitch more effective.

If me and my friends are following someone who looks like us, but has nicer things than us and says, Im going to teach you to be like me, Mr. Johnson said, teenagers cant help but take them up on the opportunity. If youre all talking about him, like, Wow, did you see the new car he bought? Did you see hes going to teach only 10 people how to do this, too? We have to be those 10 people.

Victims pay for bogus entrepreneurs courses and mentorship programs, or to be added to an Instagram accounts close friends stories circle a private group that receives exclusive content.

Mr. Wong said that often these scammers dont even teach their own classes. They create a script or slide show and hand it off to subcontractors. Its like claiming youre an expert yoga instructor, selling your yoga classes, then getting your sister-in-law who has no yoga experience to teach, Mr. Wong said.

The administrator behind @BallerBusters said their research methods are rigorous. They will comb through screen-shotted messages and legal filings, speak to industry sources, and conduct a social media audit before committing to exposing someone.

Were not TMZ or a review page we actually do investigative journalism, the administrator said.

The busts themselves generally take place on Instagram Stories and are done in a tongue-in-cheek nature with plenty of emoji. (The majority of content on the accounts main feed consists of memes and parody videos.)

Ultimately @BallerBusters administrator wants the account to be an educational resource. There is a URL to host a website and plans to create an online hub for information about avoiding common business scams on social media, creating a platform for people to review courses and mentorship programs.

Im not all about the busts, I really want to teach people, they said. Id like to bring experts in each field and talk on Instagram live. I want an attorney to teach people how to file claims legally, how to get legal counsel and their rights. I want to bring a social media expert to talk about personal branding, someone who knows Facebook ads. I would love to put them on and teach people for free.

While high-profile female influencers like Caroline Calloway have suffered public blowback for selling writing courses and creativity workshops, the account administrator said they believed these women arent the real scammers.

Ninety-nine percent of the people perpetuating course scams are men, they said. And, unlike women, theyre charging thousands of dollars, and in some cases tens of thousands, for their classes.

Ive been looking for girls to bust, and theres nothing. Maybe a few, but its nothing compared to men, they said. People can go bust models, like one was busted for the clouds in her pics being the same. I dont care about that.

@BallerBusters refuses to create a list of ballers it considers legitimate, but it does follow businessmen, including Richard Saghian, the chief executive of Fashion Nova, and Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur.

As some have learned, however, a follow from the account can also be the first sign youre about to be busted.

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On the Internet, No One Knows Youre Not Rich. Except This Account. - The New York Times