Executive Summary. Hudu University. Mr. Travis Schwab, President/Owner 775 W Concord Park Dr Bluffdale, UT

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1 Mr. Travis Schwab, President/Owner 775 W Concord Park Dr Bluffdale, UT Document Generated On May 12, 2014

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 6 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 8 Additional Information 10

3 Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. <br><br> The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1

4 Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? is an online Institution. began as Business Plan University with a single course on Business Planning and Business set up. Since 2010, Business Plan University has had over 2,000 students who have taken the course. As an online school, our focus is on students from all over the world. We have served students from all of the 50 states and international students as well. Our physical location is located in the same building as Business Format Inc. and serves as the schools Corporation. Our online presence is prominent within the business and entrepreneurship communities and we seek to expand that presence rapidly this year. Our blogging and other forms of outreach, engage our students into a course that teaches a business plan and focuses on the application side of the business model. The single course, (BPU) has developed into additional courses per our students request for additional learning as our desire to develop our niche as an industry leader for online education. Our categories for learning are Business, Entrepreneurship, Personal/Leadership Development, and Information Systems/IT Management. Our biggest change came as a result of meeting student needs and growing our course curriculum. It has been a very good learning experience to create and acquire curriculum for this purpose. will continue to look for and develop the best curriculum for our students. Our focus will be curriculum that is built around a clear process for learning and not only the philosophy of a subject. Our students come from all walks of life. Most often our students have full-time employment and are looking to begin another endeavor or invest money into an idea they have always wanted to explore. Our students are self-motivated and seldom require heavy interaction from teachers and staff. Our unique system, enables our courses to be truly online, with the benefit of a classroom setting built into each lesson. Chat features, forums, and s, keep students connected with the professors. Live video, recorded webinars, and power-point presentations help students learn and understand subjects with clarity. Phone calls and conference sessions are additional forms of media that tie our students to their learning. Our professors and staff are made up of very intelligent and progressive professors who have both worked in the real world with application specific to current learning needs as well as have taught in the classroom. is led by Travis Schwab as the University president. Travis Schwab, is currently employed as the Director of Special Services for Madison School District. Travis has worked in a variety of positions during his educational career. He began his career as a 7th and 8th grade Science Teacher in Waller, Texas. Travis loved teaching and also saw opportunities to impact students on a higher level an pursued a counseling degree and was a High School Counselor for 6 Years. His focus then turned towards administration where he worked as a High School Assistant Principal for two Years, was the Director of a Special Needs School (Alpine Transition and Education Center) in Lindon, Utah, and took on a pivotal role as a Junior High Assistant Principal for one Year. Travis has been working in the field of education as a Teacher, School Counselor and Administrator for 13 years. He obtained his first Master's Degree in School Counseling in 2003 from Idaho State University. At this time, he also earned his Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) Certification, and worked as a Private Counselor in a Counseling Agency for 3 years. He currently maintains his LPC Certification, and is licensed in the State of Idaho as a Professional Counselor. Travis earned his second Master's Degree in Educational Administration in 2009 from Grand Canyon University graduating Cum Laude with a 4.0. Sarah Lee Schmitz graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Minnesota in She was awarded a grant for Writing Composition from the UROP foundation (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) in 2002, was recognized and awarded by the Kennedy Center's American College Arts Festival multiple times, which led to invitation to the Great Plains Writer's Conference. In 2007, Sarah moved to NYC, and completed courses in each level offered by Gotham Writer's Workshop, writing travel and restaurant reviews, earning a top ten recognition by the Princess Grace Foundation grant program, as well as a semi-finalist for Writer's Digest Annual Page 2

5 Competition. In 2013 she relocated to the Lake Tahoe region to write for the Tahoe Quarterly and Western Art & Architecture magazines, and pursued certification in Technical and Grant Writing by AGWA (American Grant Writer's Association), to help non-profit organizations write and apply for federal and local grants. Brian Hazelgren has over 27 years business experience in executive management, entrepreneurship, motivational speaking, and business coaching. Brian was an Adjunct Professor at University of Utah School of Business from where he developed the entrepreneurial program for the U of U. He is a globally recognized expert in business planning, strategic planning, infrastructure development, entrepreneurship, sales and operations, and has written 10 highly successful books. Brian has trained over 40,000 business executives, and over 3,500 college students. He is an expert in corporate strategy, business planning, and marketing. During his career, Brian served as the Chief Development Officer from for The Children's Miracle Network and raised over $1 billion in charitable funds. Additionally, Brian has raised over $500 million needed to launch and expand small business ventures. He has developed hundreds of business plans to launch and execute new ventures and new product operations. Brian and Ann Hazelgren are the proud parents of six children - including two sets of twins. Greg Jensen is our adjunct professor of Investments as well as an options investor, speaker, and author. His book, "Spread Trading - An Introduction to Trading Options in Nine Simple Steps," focuses on giving investors the tools and knowledge to put the odds of success in their favor.greg has trained thousands of people from all corners of the world to be successful in any market condition. His innovative and cutting edge education can help both beginner and advanced traders improve their results. Helping his students turn their financial positions around and create financial freedom has been one of Jensen's most rewarding experiences in life. Greg is a registered investment advisor and actively manages private investment accounts. He earned his degree in business management, with an emphasis in finance, from Utah State University. He's written for a long list of investment publications, including: Forbes Inc., trademonster, optionmonster, OptionsXpress, Active Trader Magazine, Reuters, Wiley Trading and other like publications. Greg currently resides in Saratoga Springs, Utah with his wife and three children. Travis McGhee is a financial industry veteran with 10+ years experience navigating the financial markets. He started his career as a clerk on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, eventually earning his badge and trading in the S&P 500 options pit, Euro Currency options pit and then upstairs as a Euribor/Short Sterling options trader. After 6 years on the floor Travis took a position with the Chicago-based investment bank Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett (now Raymond James), managing high net worth and institutional portfolios. It was here that Travis was reconnected with the Najarian's (Jon and Pete) and accepted a position with their newly launched company trademonster. Travis spent 3 years, as Director of Business Development, helping grow the young brokerage firm from a start-up to the industry leader it is today. In the summer of 2012 Travis joined FuturesANIMAL as their CEO, seeking to replicate the same growth experienced at trademonster and taking the newly launched brokerage/educational firm to the next level. Travis has a B.A. from Lake Forest College and an M.S. in Management from New York University. He is series 3, 7 and 63 registered. He currently resides in Park City, UT with his wife. Daniel Bird is serving in an interim role as he transitions into his role as Vice President of Operations. Daniel brings more than 16 year experience in adult education to. Prior to he served as the Director of Academic Sales at Pluralsight where he lead efforts to provide schools and students high quality learning resources for computer technology and programming courses. Throughout his career he has worked with leaders in education as the State and local levels. He led efforts in Idaho and Missouri to make changes in student testing for IT related courses. He assisted in the development of a network security course for high school students in South Carolina. This course of study was approved by the South Carolina Department of Education. Daniel worked with the Renton School District to develop a training program that would prepare teachers to teach technology courses within the district. Daniel has extensive experience in working with colleges and universities. He mapped New Horizons New Mexico courses to align with College of Santa Fe computer courses. This resulted in the signing of an articulation agreement between New Horizons New Mexico and the College of Santa Fe. This relationship allowed New Horizons students to co-enroll at the College of Santa Fe and receive college credit for New Horizons courses. He also managed articulation agreements for CompUSA with University of Phoenix and New Horizons with agreement with Baker University. While at New Horizons of Oregon, a WASC accredited school, he was the Director of Education for its career school. Scott Schwab is the Vice President of Accreditation and adjunct professor for Business Plan University course. He will support Daniel and Page 3

6 Travis in aligning standards, protocols, and procedures of the school; as well as supporting the directive of obtaining additional Accreditations. Scott is an entrepreneur and began with a simple idea about teaching a Business Plan that was software base and Accredited. Business Plan University was the first fully accredited, software base program that was not template driven. Additionally Scott has explored additional avenues in Sales and owns a consulting company as well as a Health & Nutrition company. Most recently Scott wrote the book Standing Accountable: Increase Your Success by Holding Yourself Responsible. Through this experience and other corporate training opportunities Scott has developed a vast knowledge of content, delivery, and learning that he applies to the Hudu model by holding students accountable. As the creator of the Business Plan University course and the current Adjunct professor, Scott is very well connected to Business and Entrepreneurship. Chad Spence has 20 years of experience in both consulting and architecting enterprise software solutions for a myriad of industries. Chad began his career with a start-up that was eventually purchased by Equifax and still thrives today using many of the technologies developed in the early 90s. Chad began focusing on the network marketing industry in 2004 and recruited the development team that set industry records by launching Agel Enterprises in 12 countries on day one. Using the proprietary software Mr. Spence and his team developed, Agel expanded into over 50 countries. Many companies continue to use this software platform to run their international and domestic ventures. In 2011, Chad began working with BusinessPlanUniversity.com, and began to re-develop their Learning Management System. By 2013, Chad was able dedicate his primary focus on supporting Business Plan University, and Business Format Inc, which has resulted in major technology enhancements, necessary to support these expanded education models. Chad has over 150 college credits, covering several Majors, before committing to Computer Science/Software Development. Chad continues to actively pursue courses that enhance his skills in emerging technologies, while providing a competitive advantage in this constantly evolving industry. is unique in how the technology connects the student to the world of learning. Our proprietary software known as a Learning Management System creates an atmosphere of learning that efficiently tracks student learning. Our LMS system has the name D.E.E.T. which is Database Enterprise Exchange Technology. Essentially, our focus becomes the student as we further understand their learning preferences, the environments they prefer to learn in, and the best ways for these students to take in additional learning of subject matter and relating courses. With our focus continually on the student, we are finding that student needs are often difficult to standardize. Our continual focus is to develop learning objectives that meet a wide array of learning preferences as well as make the education unique and custom to the student. is on the cutting edge of learning development and curriculum advancement; however, our goal continues to improve our processes from enrollment to class interaction. Creating the perfect environment for students is a challenge and one that creates many opportunities. will invest millions of dollars over the progression of our programs to making learning accessible to students everywhere in the world. Our progress will be marked based on efficiencies of students and their learning development. Our community for learning is the world. Our hope and challenge is to provide education and human literacy to the world. Creating jobs is a core focus we feel passionate about. Whether our students start businesses or simply gain the skills for continued education and professional development, we will create a better world economy by developing better students. We can influence people by focusing on education that is available to all. We cannot simply teach a subject; rather we will focus on the application of the subject and the principle obtained. Students will be measured not only for their ability to test, but more appropriately their ability to perform the subject matter and content. has developed a system for obtaining course content and the delivery of the content within a system that students can comprehend and clearly understand. The student learning experience is our differentiating factor. As we continually strive to deliver a variety of courses that are unique to Hudu, as well as combine traditional learning, we believe we can increase and develop a more efficient pathway for learning. We have created a process that we call our Student Learning Path, which extends learning to short, efficient lessons that build into an overall learning competency as a traditional course. This process is one that we believe will change education and make it more applicable to today's learning preferences. Advisory Board: Mason Lefler, M.ED, is currently a PHD candidate at Utah State University. Mason graduated from Brigham Young University with a Page 4

7 Bachelor's of science in Psychology. He then went on to earn a Masters of Education from Arizona State University. During his Master's program he taught English, Reading, and Math while coaching at a Title I middle school in inner city Phoenix. During his third, and last year of teaching, he piloted an Apple I@chieve grant where they used ipads to "flip the classroom" of the entire 8th grade. This experience opened his eyes to a new technology driven future in education. Mason is currently earning his PhD at Utah State University in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences. Randy is a passionate entrepreneur, New York Times Best Selling Author, and he loves growing companies. He has worked closely with some of the world's most renowned companies, educators, speakers, and thought leaders. Randy's a serial entrepreneur in connection with Hero Partners, he has founded Several other companies including Prosper Inc, Flow Publishing, Education Success Inc. and several other companies, which are industry leaders in online marketing specializing in customer acquisition, marketing, and online education. Randy is also a Partners of the Bronze Buffalo Club, Founded by Justin an Cody Hyde. Star Valley, Wyoming. In addition to, and in conjunction with the Bronze Buffalo Club, we they host the Annual Rocky Mountain Economic Summit Series every year in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, We features many of the world's foremost experts on world and U.S. economies and business. The Rocky Mountain Summit Series is covered live by Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, and many others. He was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young, Top 40 under 40 Entrepreneur, and has received many other awards and recognition in business and charitable involvement. Randy is an alumnus of Brigham Young University, and sits on the Presidents Advancement Council at Brigham Young University Idaho. He is also a graduate of the Owner President Management Program at Harvard University, and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School. Randy lives in Utah with his wife Charlotte and their four beautiful daughters and two sons. Aaron is a passionate networker and entrepreneur. He loves learning new things, discussing strategy, and helping companies succeed. Aaron has always had a passion for entrepreneurship. Aaron has founded several other companies. He founded Osagia and Palisades Properties which are real estate holding and rental companies. He also helped found Education Success Institute, an online marketing company specializing in customer acquisition, marketing, and product development. Aaron partnered to start a Cross-fit exercise gym and a fly fishing shop in Rexburg and has seen those really start to grow. Aaron was recognized as a Top 40 under 40 Entrepreneur in the state of Utah in Aaron is an alumnus of Brigham Young University Idaho and the College of Idaho. Aaron is the President of an Personal Development Educational company called Achieve Today. Page 5

8 School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. Hudu in Old Dutch means, "Enlightened Learning". At our mission is to deliver learning to the student wherever and whenever they desire. Online Education is changing the world and we plan to take online learning and develop the efficiencies that bring understanding and further enlightenment to the world. Educating is not longer enough; it is our duty to create a ubiquitous system that advances understanding and performance. Vision- will extend educational access across the world. Our vision is to partner with non-profit institutions to deliver education to the under privileged and those who lack the access. Over 3 billion internet users will come online in the next 7 years. We plan to be a large portion of education to the world. We envision our courses being taken all over the world and provide learning that is both unique and traditional for a complete learning and understanding for all students. Our software delivery system allows for us to provide many tools and resources to the student that will enhance their learning. Our objectives are clearly defined with the student in mind. We believe it is not enough to simply provide an access point to learning. We believe that learning should engage, enhance, and develop the heart and mind of the student. By doing this worldwide, we believe that we can change the world one student at a time. Values- The greatest value that we can provide our students is an honest education. Learning has changed, jobs require more from students then in times past. We feel that can serve that void and create bridges for learning that enhance performance and further understanding. Our focus is to provide content that one cannot find within many traditional learning institutions. The difference must be the attention to detail and the focus on performance. Obtaining a degree is a noble pursuit and we hope to deliver degrees for our courses some day. However, we believe we must start at our core and work outwards. Our faculty is required to have worked in the field they are teaching. Furthermore, it is requisite that they are involved with business and entrepreneurship to fully understand the needs of students. If we cannot assist our students in qualifying for today's market needs, then we simply do not have business providing education. We believe that learning is a component of education just as performance within a learned subject should provide application. If our students cannot perform a task or acquire a skill from the subject, then it will not be taught at. Our focus on competency-based learning is the value we will add to all of our students. has the desire to change the world through education. We embody this concept by developing technologies that allow our delivery of education to be more efficient. Our efficiencies began with the student and extend to the professor and eventually our administration. Our tracking tools and resources give us up to date information on anyone who is taking a course and anyone who is logged into our system. This development in delivery has given us multiple opportunities to increase our effectiveness and in a way get into the minds of our students. We embody progress through learning and development. Our hope is to provide details specific to learning. Providing general instruction, often times provides general results; whereas specific objectives will return specific results. We are very informed with what is happening in the job market and what employers are in need of. Our goal is to curtail our curriculum with efficiencies that will increase the students competencies as they take courses from. Our focus for learning and development sets a higher expectation for the student. We desire the student to learn effectively, but also treat our brand with a respect that will provide students additional opportunities. Our relationships with the greater community gives Hudu a sense of responsibility and duty to provide the best education available. Establishing that value as a young institution is difficult, but performance and Page 6

9 results are the focus we embody. As we continually seek additional relationships and impact more communities through learning, we intend to have be the Thunderbird of online education. Creating quality does take time, however that is a shared expectation with the student and our institution. Page 7

10 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. Transitioning from a Post Secondary Accreditation to a Digital Online Learning Accreditation has been the greatest achievement we have achieved thus far. We believe in what we are doing and have worked very hard to align ourselves with the standards and protocols of AdvancED Accreditation. We feel it is our duty to have a level of accreditation, which we feel directly relates to our competency and ability to have quality education. Our history began as Business Plan University, which we are happy to announce that we have only had 21 students withdraw from the course since Students feel comfortable with the material and work diligently to complete their business plans. We have had great success by our students in receiving funding, furthering their education, and receiving further promotions based on their understanding of a business plan and how to apply it to a business model. has great students; many who are accomplishing great things and becoming entrepreneurs. Our course work is dedicated to raising the belief level in our students and what they can accomplish. Equipped with real world, applicable skills, we are seeing great results from our students. This motivating factor of working with students, also is the source for our greatest motivation for improvement. What we did yesterday may not be most efficient today? We continually embrace and focus on change management and course improvement. The areas we seek to improve in are mostly dedicated to the technology and delivery of the courses, and the student experience. We believe that are students enjoy their experience to this point, but they are continually asking for additional courses and better videos and webinars. Hosting all of the videos is quite expensive and takes time to execute properly, largely based on the variety of video players and video delivery. We have reinvested a portion of every dollar made back into, for the development of further technology to deliver clean and clear media to the student. The experience of a student is based on what they learn as well as what they feel. Video searching and video viewing via Youtube has brought on a standard for delivery that students are familiar with and also have an expectation towards. We eagerly look to improve the understanding of our students through supporting video as well as rich content in the form of content, models, case studies, and assessments. We feel our focus is in the correct areas, but we continually must strive for improved results. Our user interface is the topic of daily discussion and represents the area we are continually developing. Naturally with an increased focus in the areas of technology and user experience, we must also realize that our instruction must match the quality of the visual experience. This is why we continually seek out the best content providers and develop content that is best in class. There is room for improvement and in many ways our improvement will come by continually seeking to teach the process and principles of subjects. Philosophy of a subject is fine, but we tend to believe that teaching a person how to do something will create more results than simply teaching a person something. Our instruction is clearly a great benefit to students, but also must be looked at for continued improvement. Better instruction is the result of better teachers that are dedicated to our mission and goals for education. Better teachers also must have better training and instruction. Our goal is to provide the best practical and functional training for our teachers, so we have better learning at the student level. Teachers must be aware of the obvious differences in learning styles and preferences as well as living the subject matter. We do not consider the knowledge that a teacher has in a subject to create and produce adequate results. Rather it must be someone who is living the subject and has the principle understood for both short term application and long term fulfillment. The area that will always be necessary to improve is our teachers and the connection to the material. These items listed above as well as our continued quest to become a degree-granting institution is our goal for the next three years. We plan to continually increase the number of teachers and staff as well as increase their effectiveness through training and content delivery. Page 8

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12 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. We are seeking to change education. We do not wish to eliminate the tried and tested ways that education has been successful. However we do feel that education is changing and progressing, so the result should be the progression and change of material, content, and delivery. Online education is only part of what is needed today. Having content available online is a great step and we applaud institutions that have a dedicated focus on this application. However, we can do more and institutions can do more. We encourage schools and institutions to make the investment towards becoming a fully functional online institution. Though online education is changing traditional education and its delivery, this does not mean that it must eliminate it. We believe that the best course is a combination or collaboration of what has worked in the past and what is needed for our future. It is evident that online learning has extended the educational requirements to multiple generations. It is no longer effective to create material that is only geared to the college aged student. Learning must extend to all generations where we have a very diverse workforce. This is the first time in history where the workforce is made up of three generations. Our goal is to create learning and empower knowledge for the different preferences for learning, but also the variety of generational needs. Education is as unique as the person obtaining it. We must find better ways to increase our ability to reach the student. We believe that is done in the form of short lessons to progressively longer chapters and course work. We must get the buy-in from our students with segments that are powerful and represent fun and exciting learning. This strategy is our focus for learning engagement and represents a dedicated plan for the future of. We are passionate about learning, passionate about our students, and desire for a better community; locally, nationally, and internationally. Page 10