John Woods - Chief Academic Officer & Provost - University of Phoenix

John Woods, Ph.D., is the chief academic officer and provost for University of Phoenix and
responsible for further developing and fulfilling the University’s academic mission. He is
charged with amplifying the University's high-quality, rigorous and career-relevant academic
programs, while spurring innovation to help working adults move efficiently from education to
careers. He leads a team of academic leaders and more than 3,000 practitioner faculty with
applied experience in the disciplines they teach. His office defines student learning outcomes
that align with employer expectations, and with the specific skills students should have to
improve their performance in today's competitive economy.

Dr. Woods provides leadership for assessment of student learning, instructional innovation,
faculty engagement, the student experience, accreditation, and institutional reporting.
Dr. Woods is the founding director of the University of Phoenix Career Institute® which annually
publishes the Career Optimism Index®. In 2022, Dr. Woods’ insights on the Index were featured
in numerous publications including Forbes and Inc. He is active as a speaker on career,
workforce and higher education issues at events including the 2022 SHRM conference, 2022
Economic Development Summit of WESTMARC, Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation’s 2022
Workforce Summit, and the 2022 Reagan Institute Summit on Education (RISE).

Prior to joining University of Phoenix, Dr. Woods served as a dean at a traditional liberal arts
college, an adjunct faculty member at numerous institutions over the last twenty-five years,
and as chief academic officer for over fifteen years at other institutions serving working adult
learners. He began his career in higher education focusing on helping colleges and universities
leverage technology for instruction with the Eduprise, Collegis and Deltak family of companies.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You are listening to CEOs, youshould know on iHeartRadio. Of course.
My name is Billy Harfach. Wehave a very special guest this week,
and I am excited to talk aboutthis because the future of our communities really
it boils down to one thing,and that is education. I have the
Provost and Chief Academic Officer of theUniversity of Phoenix, mister John Woods.

(00:23):
Mister Woods, welcome to the show. How are you today, Hi,
Billiam great, thanks for having me. Well, I'm happy to chat with
you, and you know a lotof us out there listening today have heard
of University of Phoenix, but Iwant you to dig into some of the
details. Why is the University ofPhoenix different than some other universities and colleges.
I think it's a special institution,Billy. We were founded in nineteen

(00:44):
seventy six, and the best ofmy knowledge at the time, and maybe
even still to this day, theonly institution that was built for working adults.
So not built for a lot ofdifferent audiences or a variety of different
folks seeking education, really built specificallyfor one particular audience, the adult who's

(01:06):
working by looking to advance their educationwhile doing so. When I was reading
about you, mister Woods, andreading about the University of Phoenix. What
stood out to me is a couplethings, and I want to start with
this. Your office really defines studentlearning outcomes that make sure that they align
with employer expectations. So we're talkingabout career relevant academics here. And to

(01:30):
me, in a lot of theinterviews and a lot of the conversations around
education that I've had, I alwaysgo back to, we need to make
sure that our curriculum, that ourclasses, that the programs we're offering in
the end will make sure that thisperson gets a job, because that's what
we're trying to achieve here. Talkto me about those learning outcomes and how
the University of Phoenix is really aligningtomorrow's workforce. Yeah, there's a long

(01:55):
history here of what we've done tobetter serve working adults in the lineup with
the things that employers expect them tobe able to know. When we were
first founded, our founder, doctorSpurling, he wanted a different education for
working adults and he wanted to betterserve employers. He hired faculty who were
practitioners in the field. We offeredprograms that would help students get ahead in

(02:20):
their careers. We've evolved over theyears as we look at where we stand
today, we don't offer any programsthat don't lead to above average job prospects
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which I think is really part and
parcels who we are. And thento your point about what students learn in
those programs, We've mapped all ofour programs so that each course, in

(02:45):
every single program teaches students at leastthree skills that are required by employers,
and a lot of mapping has beendone to figure out what those skills should
be. We've mapped those skills tofind that they're in job postings, to
find that they're in job descriptions thatare posted by employers looking to hire people,

(03:08):
they're in the Bureau of Labor Statisticsdata sets, and so in every
single course someone takes, they're goingto learn at least three skills that are
really important for the job that theyhave to do upon completion. In this
way, a student can learn skillsand accumulate those skills as they go and
maybe be able to progress in theircareer or do more in the job they're

(03:30):
in as they go and not waittill the end, which is really important.
Speaking right now to John Woods,he's the provost and chief academic officer
at the University of Phoenix, andJohn, what kind of feedback do you
get from employers? You talked abouthow you gather all that data, gather
all that information about what they're lookingfor, But when they hire a University

(03:51):
of Phoenix graduate, what kind offeedback over the years have you gotten like,
oh my gosh, this candidate wasreally prepared. What sets universe you
have Phoenix graduates apart well and actilly. We get those stories all the time.
More scientifically, we do employer surveys. We've got industry advisory councils that
serve to help us evolve our programs, and they meet regularly year round.

(04:16):
To help us do that, wesurvey our alumni and we ask our alumni
specific questions about how well prepared theyfelt the University of Phoenix education made them.
So we're always looking at that data. We've got, as I said,
some great stories from different faculty,students, employers, industry advisory council

(04:38):
members who all tell us what we'reteaching really hits the market and helps our
students advance, And it really isa mix of are we getting those stories,
are we getting that great feedback?And we also collecting the data from
those different sources that tell us thesame thing. So we're always making adjustments
to try and be better in thisregard. As I'm hearing you speak about

(05:00):
the University of Phoenix and your goals, I just I kind of am laughing
inside because I'm thinking of myself asa college student when I went to university
and I had this moment like halfwaythrough my junior year, like, oh
my goodness, I'm doing this allbecause I need to get a job after
this is all done. And Ihad all of these courses from all over

(05:21):
the place, and I really,if I was being honest with myself,
I wasn't sure where it was going. And I don't think that the classes
I was taking was necessarily directing medown a career path. So it's really
nice to hear that the University ofPhoenix is doing something different to make sure
that your students they know what thenext step is. I think that's so
important when we talk about education.Yeah, you and me both, Billy.

(05:45):
I can remember as an undergraduate studentfeeling a little lacking in direction myself,
and I've got kids now going throughthe process of selecting or in college
one of them, and I thinkcollege is an amazing experience, particularly for
our younger people to seventeen to twentyone year olds who can kind of go

(06:06):
about things a little bit differently anddiscover that path, learn what they're interested
in, and then pursue it.Before working adults who's maybe looking to make
a change or advance their career,they're feeling maybe a little bit topped out
in their career. They need somethinga lot more specific, a lot more

(06:27):
directive, and they need a confidencethat what they're being asked to learn is
in fact the importance and relevant andwill help them get ahead. So higher
education is pretty diverse in that way. For us, we're looking for the
most specific, most direct, mostreally valuable pathway for our students to be

(06:49):
able to apply that knowledge right awayas they're learning it on the job and
maybe impress the boss and get adifferent job, a better job, or
get a new project that they mightnot have otherwise been able to get.
Because the skills they're learning build uponeach other and they're more transparent. Both
the learner and the employer as theygo again, not having to wait four

(07:11):
or five years until you're done tosay I'm ready to get hired. But
with the skills they learn along theway, I'm ready to do more the
next day. Making a lot ofsense on the air. Right now,
I'm speaking the John Woods of theUniversity of Phoenix. This is CEOs.
You should know. My name isBilly Harfoss. John. You know you
talk about those jobs. We allare always talking about jobs here in the
state of Arizona, in America ingeneral. It's no surprise to my audience

(07:35):
and certainly no surprise to you thatthe current trends in business and technology they're
changing, and they're showing that theway employees work. We're talking about where
we're talking about when even how theywork have and are continuing to change almost
month over month. This thing isevolving in what our business culture looks like

(07:56):
for the future. So, somebodyin your experience, you've been in academia
for a long time, job placementat the highest levels, executive levels,
where is this thing going? Imean, are we going to be working
from home now? A lot ofus seemingly forever? Is this a new
career path. What kind of changesdo you see in the next ten years.
Yeah, I think work from homehas become pretty widely accepted, obviously

(08:20):
out of necessity. At the startof COVID, you have seen a lot
of large organizations bring people back totheir offices. I think that has been
a bit of a bit of ashift, and maybe a bit of a
surprise shift. Companies I think arewanting to reestablish that connection with their employer

(08:41):
employees. I don't think that we'llsee a complete shift to remote work.
You've got those larger ones that haveasked the employees to come back. You've
got employees now able to make choicesof where they want to work based on
some key factors like work from homeand if that's important to them. So

(09:01):
I think you're going to see moreemployee choice, employees voting with their fee
to who they want to work for, taking the type of work they want,
the style of work, the cultureof work. Those are choices that
were not always available to employees.So we do see that when we ran
soon to be our third coming upin the next couple of months, when

(09:22):
we run our Career Optimism Index,we see a big, big difference in
what employers are expecting of employees andwhat employees are expecting of employers on things
like professional development, the culture atwork, and appreciation for mental health awareness

(09:43):
and appreciation and support for training anddevelopment. There are a lot of gaps.
I'd say, if there's one thingI would tell you where the world
of work is headed, is thatemployees have ever more leverage and power to
choose who they want to work for. You see very low unemployment today,
but you see an incredible amount ofchurn where people are. Sometimes you've been

(10:07):
willing to leave a job without anext job wind up our Career Optimism INDEXT
told us that nearly two thirds ofpeople are taking kind of an always on
approach, so looking for that nextposition even if they're happy where they are,
and many reports that they'd be willingto leave their job if they were
unhappy, like I said, withouteven having that next job ready to start

(10:30):
in. And you know, John, you mentioned the remote work and how
that trend is shifting. Really,the University of Phoenix has been on the
cutting edge for a number of yearsnow as far as how we conduct classes
and how that we don't really needto drive park our car walk into a
building and sit at a desk inorder to get an education. University of

(10:50):
Phoenix has been doing something different fora number of years, and that's online
learning. Where do you see thedirection of the University of Phoenix as far
as online learning goes? And I'massuming you're seeing more and more people adopt
that model. Yeah, many folkswill remember that when we started serving working
adults, we were campus based innineteen seventy six. We were one of

(11:13):
the first institutions to have fully onlineprograms. Those online programs eventually grew to
be a majority of our student enrollment. Pre COVID, we were seeing that
trend increase. People not wanting todeal with traffic, people not wanting to
deal with the lack of flexibility ofgoing from work to school and spending three

(11:39):
four hours in a classroom on aweeknight. And so online was growing even
before COVID, and then obviously withCOVID it became even much more widely accepted.
Our programs, I would say,continue to evolve. There's online education,
but there are many different ways folkscan build and deliver on online education.

(12:00):
The evolution for us of most recenttimes is to move into competency based
online education, and these are programsthat give students even more flexibility, even
greater agency to navigate through the curriculum, to go a little bit more at
their own pace. And that's abig evolution for us. We've built four

(12:22):
of our programs now in a competencybased model. They're also even more affordable,
and so we've always been pretty ithink competitive in terms of our pricing
of programs. For their competency basedprograms are even lower priced, and someone
can get their MBA, for example, in our competency based version in about

(12:45):
eleven months. For I believe it'sabout eleven thousand dollars. And so for
the person who wants flexibility, affordability, value to learn from faculty who are
practitioners in the field, were reallygood fit. And you know, I
think people make choices based on whatthey're looking for, and if those are

(13:07):
some of the things that appeal tothem, they'll choose us. Well,
we know that you're dealing with adultshere. Adults are busy. Adults are
also sometimes parents, and they havea job, but they also want to
up their skills and they want toget further their education process. So these
competency based programs, it's my understandingthat they really help with timing. In
other words, you can go asfast as slow as you want. Do

(13:28):
I have that correct? Yeah,you can really vary your speed in a
competency based program. As I said, you can finish in as quickly as
eleven months. You can go alittle bit longer if you want. Some
of our students take breaks. Thething about the comminency based programs and they
have a slightly higher work requirement asan entrance requirement. But the thing about

(13:52):
commoncy based programs is you're doing applicationbased assignments that ask you to draw on
what you're learning in combination with yourwork and world experience, and most people
report it doesn't seem like a lotof busy work to them. These assignments
seem very practical, very applicable towhat they're asked to do on the job.

(14:13):
And then in addition to the flexibilityand being able to go faster,
the student satisfaction in these programs hasbeen really high. I got to tell
you we're going to finish up withthis and thank you for being on the
show today. But this last topicI'm really excited to talk with you about
it, because I'm not sure howI feel, and I'm not sure how
the audience feels. But here's afact. So fifty two percent of American

(14:35):
workers say they are easily replaceable intheir job or position. Forty one percent
of workers worry about losing their jobs. So if we go off those numbers,
it's my belief that we're not talkingabout losing your job in the traditional
sense, always like a layoff orgetting fired. But right now we have
things happening like chat GPT. I'msure you're aware of an AI based programs.

(15:01):
And it was the thought a numberof years ago, really just a
couple of years ago, that thesewould replace more blue collar jobs. And
now we're getting data and we're talkingto experts that say, not so fast,
my friend, these could also bereplacing even more so white collar jobs.
When we talk about Americans that areworried about losing their jobs, we
have to also worry about technology,which is a great thing to have in

(15:22):
our lives, but it might takesome of those jobs away. At the
University of Phoenix and you, personally, I mean, how do you look
about this new phenomenon that the workplaceis getting ready to experience. Yeah,
I think Bill, you're onto something. There. The studies that are written
about where we see the world ofwork going by the like the Gardener Group

(15:43):
or Forbes, they talk about theskills that are required regardless of the technology
advances, regardless of things like artificialintelligence as you mentioned, and chat GPT,
there are skills that will really helpsomebody be successful no matter what happens

(16:04):
in the world of work, nomatter how work evolves. The skills that
are mentioned things like being able tocollaborate and work in teams, or appreciate
differences in people, or be agood communicator. Those are sometimes called soft
skills. But whenever these studies arereleased, there at the top of the
list of what employers are expecting andhoping for in their workers, because they

(16:27):
make somebody who is adaptable, whois able to evolve even as the world
of work changes and evolves. SoI guess my answer for that would be,
not only have we mapped the technicalskills in our programs, but we've
mapped those skills which are, asI said, sometimes called soft skills,

(16:47):
but they're vitally important. So ifyou're a student at the University of Phoenix,
you'll find out where those skills arebeing taught as well. You'll be
measured on your attainment, your learninglevel against those skill requirements, and you'll
even get to be awarded for yourlearning with a badge. People can share
those badges if they want places likeZIP recruiter profiles or LinkedIn profiles, and

(17:11):
the badges are validated the data thatwe collected to measure the learning that took
place. So even as the worldof work evolves and changes, those skills
will be I think we'll say durable, and we're trying to make them so
that they're more easily translated to astudent and to an employer, so that
they understand exactly where they were learnedand the level of attainment that was reached.

(17:36):
The University of Phoenix is on thecutting edge of education. It was
such a pleasure to have you onthe show, mister John Woods. Could
you just give my audience some informationas someone's out there listening and maybe they
are apparent, maybe they already havea job, but they want to further
their education. They might want tochange a career, they might want a
promotion at work, and they justneed some more skills. Where can my

(17:56):
audience get involved and learn more aboutthe University of Well, the website has
a lot of great information Phoenix Studyto you, I would point folks specifically
to one of the following things onthe website, because you know a website,
you can go just about anywhere andlearn all kinds of stuff. Certainly

(18:17):
there's information about our programs, butwe write an academic annual report that tells
everybody, and I think a reallyclear and transparent way about all the things
that we're doing and the success ofour students our alumni. I would check
that out. You can also goto our Career Optimism Index from the Phoenix

(18:37):
website and as I said, shareswith the world a lot of information we've
collected about how work is evolving andhow worker perceptions of their career prospects are
changing. And that Career Optimism Indexalso reflects what employers are thinking and saying.
So a few places on our websiteto find out about our programs,

(18:57):
our approach, and are really importantcareer Optimism index that we do every year,
And of course you can go toPhoenix dot edu Phoenix dot edu for
all of that and more. Learnabout the University of Phoenix fascinating conversation.
Mister Woods, thank you so muchfor being on the show, and we'll
talk to you down the road.Thanks Billy, appreciate the time. This

(19:17):
has been CEOs you should know oniHeartRadio. My name is Billy Harfach.
This has been CEOs you should Know, showcasing businesses that are driving our regional
economy. Part of iHeartMedia's commitment tothe communities we serve. I'm your host,
Billy Harfash. Thanks for listening.