Designing for the Anders at National University with Mark Milliron

Send us Fan MailMost higher ed systems still treat the “typical” student like someone with a wide-open schedule and a campus life built around them. That assumption falls apart the moment you meet a working parent, a service member with deployment orders, or a community college transfer juggling rent, kids, and a job while trying to move up. I’m joined by Dr. Mark Milliron, president of National University, to talk about what it looks like to design for those learners on purpose. Mark calls them “Anders” because they are students and employees, students and parents, students and deployed. We get into National University’s Navy-rooted history, why short four- and eight-week courses can lower cognitive load, and how program design, student support, and real-world experiences have to work together if we want adult learners to finish strong and see real economic mobility. We also dig into affordability and access: tuition strategy, scholarships, emergency aid, and a clear pathway for community college transfers, including how Pell-eligible ADT students can see tuition effectively covered. Then we go head-on at AI in higher education, including National’s cross-functional AI council, the “about, with, and beyond” learning framework, and Raise Five, a simple rubric that makes AI expectations clear for every assignment while pushing faculty to rethink what learning should look like now. If you care about working learners, military-connected students, and practical innovation that keeps humans at the center, you’ll take a lot from this conversation. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the one change you think colleges should make [email protected]