NCAA Needs To Get In Line For Online If They Want To Improve Graduation Rates of Student Athletes
In two weeks I will be attending the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A) Conference to visit with my colleagues about our SMWW online courses for college credit. As a past president of the N4A in 1985, I have a close and vested relationship with the organization.
Thirty years ago when I was the Academic Advisor at the University of Missouri, I was known by my peers as an advocate of mandatory class attendance for student athletes. I called it, “Never Miss! Never Fail!”
Thirty years later my philosophy has changed completely with the advent and availability of the Internet. Online college credit courses are a solution to the demands of being a student athlete. It took one student athlete at Northeastern University to initiate how online can better serve a university and athletic department (see Northeastern uses technology to address missed classes for athletes). As the story highlights, the athletics department at Northeastern teamed with the university’s deans and professors to offer lecture capture technology, which allows student-athletes to watch lectures they miss.
This direction is a win-win; a powerful seismic shift to strengthen the student athlete concept and produce future graduation rates never recorded in college athletics across the board.
Before one starts ripping this idea because of some potential pitfalls with online education, after being a college professor for over 40 years I see firsthand that the acceptance of online education has come slowly to traditional campuses. I understand the skepticism. When I started SMWW ten years ago I faced the same challenges, but as technology allows the classroom to go wherever the student is, no matter the time of day, I now hope to be known by my peers as “Never Miss With Online!”
The bottom line for educators should be granting tools to all those that wish to be educated. As time marches on, it seems clear that online education is here to stay, and it can co-exist, augment, and enhance brick and mortar college institutions.
About The Author
Lynn Lashbrook
Dr. Lashbrook is President and Founder of Sports Management Worldwide, first ever online sports career training company with a mission to educate and train future sports business executives. SMWW trains thousands of students every year for sports business careers from over 100 countries. Dr. Lashbrook has been in sports management for over 35 year and has demonstrated a lifelong passion for helping students strategize and reach their career goals in the world of sports. Dr. Lashbrook has served at the collegiate level as an athletic academic advisor and athletic director. At the professional level he has been an NFL sports agent for over ten years representing over 35 NFL clients.
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Dr. Lashbrook:
I wanted to share a story that ties in well with your initiatives above — which I believe are spot on. About ten years ago I was on a business trip in Boston (my office is in Denver) and during my visit we dropped by the campus of Harvard for a quick tour. While at the bookstore, I bought a sweatshirt for my son whom was five at the time. The clerk asked me if my son would be attending Harvard someday and my reply back then was, “no, he’ll be taking classes online!” The clerk was shocked, and I laughed as I walked away, knowing that education was headed that direction. With 20 plus years of IT/Telecom experience behind me, it was evident that that distance learning utilizing technology was here to stay. Colleges and Universities are perhaps the last to “eat their own dogfood” — meaning they will instruct students on Information Technology, but still want to hold on to the traditions of the past. You, Dr. Lashbrook have embraced and recognized the paradigm shift and I applaud you for carrying the torch. Keep up the great work! (My son, by the way, is an up and coming Lacrosse goalie and will no doubt benefit from technology as a student athlete headed for college in just a few years.)