Christensen on disruptive innovation in higher education — from Lloyd Armstrong, University Professor and Provost Emeritus at the University of Southern California
Although the absence of an upwardly scalable technology driver has rendered higher education impossible to disrupt in its past, we believe that online learning constitutes such a technology driver and will indeed be capable of disruptively carrying the business model of low-cost universities up-market.
Disrupting College: How disruptive innovation can deliver quality and affordability to postsecondary education— from americanprogress.org by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, Louis Soares, Louis Caldera
This emerging disruptive innovation—online education—also presents an opportunity to rethink many of the age-old assumptions about higher education.
Excerpt:
The theory of disruptive innovation has significant explanatory power in thinking through the challenges and changes confronting higher education. Disruptive innovation is the process by which a sector that has previously served only a limited few because its products and services were complicated, expensive, and inaccessible, is transformed into one whose products and services are simple, affordable, and convenient and serves many no matter their wealth or expertise. The new innovation does so by redefining quality in a simple and often disparaged application at first and then gradually improves such that it takes more and more market share over time as it becomes able to tackle more complicated problems.
Also see:
Disruption, Delivery and Degrees — from InsideHigherEd.com
WASHINGTON — Many college professors and administrators shudder at comparisons between what they do and what, say, computer or automobile makers do. (And just watch how they bristle if you dare call higher education an “industry.”) But in a new report, the man who examined how technology has “disrupted” and reshaped those and other manufacturing industries has turned his gaze to higher education, arguing that it faces peril if it does not change to meet the challenge. The report, “Disrupting College,” was also the subject of a panel discussion Tuesday at the Center for American Progress, which released the report along with the Innosight Institute. (A video recording of the event is available here.)
Maintaining quality in blended learning: From classroom assessment to impact evaluation — from Educause
ELI’s online seminars offer an opportunity to hear from experts around the world on a specific teaching-and-learning-with-technology–related topic. The goal of this seminar is to examine one of the blended learning focus session topics in greater depth. With the help of the ELI community’s input, we’ve selected research and quality assurance of blended learning as the topic for our first online seminar.
With more faculty members teaching in the blended learning mode, effective course design is critical to maintaining quality while incorporating both face-to-face and online components. In this online seminar, participants will learn how to develop assignments that fit the learning objectives and align with the blended format of the course. In addition, participants will learn how course assignments can be used to provide evidence that students are meeting program goals. Finally, we’ll discuss the benefits of classroom-based research to evaluate the impact of technology on teaching and on students’ learning. Participants will learn how they can successfully accomplish scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research and use it to improve course and program outcomes.
Four Pillars of Online Course Quality — from Faculty Focus by Mary Bart
The eQuality program looks at quality from four different perspectives, which the Open Campus calls the four pillars of program quality, and has qualitative and quantitative assessments for each.
