Six colleges and universities from across the nation are teaming up to launch a new initiative that they say will change the future of education.
REP4—or “Rapid Education Prototyping” is an effort that will partner with hundreds of high school and community based organizations to address the urgent challenges of access and completion to help deliver on higher education’s promise of social and economic mobility.
“Our university’s mission has long included making education relevant, impactful and accessible for students,” said Fort Valley State University (FVSU) president Dr. Paul Jones. “Collaborating with other like-minded institutions across the nation will provide a tremendous opportunity to shift the paradigm of how we approach learning, particularly for underrepresented communities.”
FVSU is one of the six colleges and universities serving collectively more than 100,000 students, who will participate in this effort which was formed in response to a growing number of challenges facing higher education, including low completion rates, lack of access and racial gaps.
The other institutions that are part of the REP4 national alliance are: Grand Valley State University, Amarillo College in Texas; Boise State University in Idaho; San José State University in California; and Shippensburg University, part of the state system in Pennsylvania.
According to organizers, the initiative will engage the voices of learners in designing innovative, actionable solutions for pressing challenges. They said that participants will co-design education prototypes, and the best ideas will be scaled nationwide through the alliance to maximize impact.
“Flipping the model from learners simply giving feedback to learners being designers of education is a truly innovative idea,” said Dr. Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education (ACE). “It’s unprecedented to engage learners directly in the designing experience, and REP4 can serve as a model for higher education nationwide.”
