Kathy, Yes, the 'consummerism' approach to education has some good effects and creates some challenges. One difficulty seems to be the change of focus of effort and resources from the actual quality of education to the indicators of quality of an education (e.g. retention, graduation rate, grades, certifications, etc.). This usually starts to erode the quality of the actual education when we start 'manipulating the ways' to keep students in school, increase graduation rates, raise CGPAs, etc. through efforts other than enhancing instructional/learning quality. Instructor engagement is one of the many means by which instruction/learning may be improved. However, especially with adult learners, it is often difficult to instill in the students the discipline of focused engagement toward the subject of study. Thank you for your contribution. Dr. S. David Vaillancourt