Improving quality AND reducing costs — from Tony Bates
Bassis, M. (2010) Changing the equation Inside Higher Education, March 25
This article, by the President of a private college, Westminster College, in the USA, challenges the notion that reducing costs of teaching reduces quality. Some interesting quotes will give you the flavour of the article:
So we started searching the literature for instructional designs that require fewer resources and result in high levels of student learning. The ones we found shared certain characteristics. They were driven by clear learning goals and involved extensive assessment and feedback to students. They stressed active learning and took maximum advantage of technology. In each design, faculty spent less time lecturing and more time coaching, proactively asking and answering questions with groups of students. And faculty were assisted in their coaching role by teaching assistants or peer mentors. Finally, economies of scale helped to produce significant cost savings….
I pulled together a team from our school of business and told them that the goal was to develop an undergraduate degree completion program in business that produced more and better learning at half the cost of our traditional program (emphasis DSC).
From DSC:
This is right along the lines of what I have been saying will happen — and is already starting to happen with Straighterline, University of the People, and other organizations. What are YOUR plans to deal with these trends?