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The need for “Centers of Innovation” within each institution of higher education [Christian]

On 11/19/2012, in change, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, organizational change, reinvent, social learning / networks, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Mr. Rob Bobeldyk and I were brainstorming last week about the need to create A Center for Innovation — a smaller organization within our overall organization — that can be far more nimble and responsive.  Such a Center could be:

  • Constantly pulse-checking the relevant landscapes (technological, pedagogical, business models, other)
  • Researching potential approaches
  • Experimenting
  • Innovating
  • Failing
  • Succeeding some of the time — and handing off/transitioning the projects that gain traction to others in the larger organization (which may require building some new groups and/or departments at that point)

As I discovered HBR’s interview with John Kotter today, I felt our idea/direction/brainstorming is heading in the right direction!

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A revolutionary approach to strategic change -- John Kotter -- November 2012

 

That is, we are trying to keep the plane in flight while making some significant changes. Put another way, we are trying to keep the bread and butter in tact while experimenting with new business models and/or new products and services.

Kotter’s “Dual Operating System” affirms that a new/smaller/more nimble organization is appropriate.  Here are some graphics of Kotter’s “dual operating system”:

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The work of Christensen, Horn, and Johnson is highly-relevant here as well:

  • Disrupting Class
  • Disrupting College
  • The Innovator’s Dilemna


 

Addendums on 11/20/12:

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Reflections on “Spanish MOOC”

On 11/16/2012, in dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, elearning, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, ideas, innovation, languages and translation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, real-world assignments, reinvent, staying relevant, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I wonder how MOOCs focused on language will go…?  It could be great to practice a language from folks all around the world — or will it be chaotic?  Different accents. Real-world speaking and listening. Real world conflict, perhaps, as well.  But it seems like there could be some effective learning going on — at least “on paper”.   I wonder, too, if 1/2 of the time folks could speak one language — and would be the students during that part of the class — while the other 1/2 of the time they speak another language — and would be the “teachers.”

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http://spanishmooc.com/

 

 

And for yet another item on innovation within higher ed! Whew!

  • Excelsior College and three California Community Colleges offer credit for professor-less MOOC — from online colleges.com by Alex Wukman
    Excerpt:
    Excelsior College has partnered with San Diego City College, San Diego Miramar College, and Santa Rosa Junior College to offer credit for a professor-less, or mechanical, massive open online course (MOOC). The course, an introduction to statistics class, is being developed by the 20 Million Minds Foundation and the online learning community OpenStudy.
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College crackup and the online future [Taylor]

On 11/13/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business side of he, change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

College crackup and the online future — from bloomberg.com by Mark C. Taylor

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College Crackup

Illustration by Keith Shore

Excerpt:

In the coming decade, emerging technologies will thoroughly transform higher education. Although distance learning and computer-assisted education have been around since the 1960s, financial pressures are forcing institutions to develop aggressive online programs.

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These practical considerations shouldn’t overshadow one of the most promising innovations that online education will bring: The very structure of knowledge will change.

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As students mix and match courses online, pressure will increase for professors to develop classes that integrate different approaches and disciplines.

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asdfsadf

 

 

Also see:

 

From DSC:
Creating “Innovation Labs” within each institution of higher education sounds like a good idea to me…we can experiment with things at smaller scales and see what works and what doesn’t.

Also see:
Take a lesson from Apple: A strategy to keep customers in your ecosystem — from forbes.com by Alonzo Canada

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

1.     Set focused, strategic targets.
2.     Create a portfolio of experiments. Like Apple or Mercedes Benz, once you have focused, strategic targets set, create a series of experiments.  A general rule of thumb is the 7-2-1 rule:  one experiment should be big and relatively safe.  Two experiments should be slightly more risky and moderately sized.  Then seven experiments should be highly risky and low cost. These experiments can be scaled accordingly across teams, business units, and the entire company. 3M is one of the first companies to mandate that its employees spend 20% of their time thinking up blue sky ideas beyond its current lines of business and this is how Post-It Notes were born.  Art Fry, an engineer at 3M wanted to find a better way to manage notes in his hymnal on Sundays at church.
3.    Leverage learnings to inform new experiments.

 

 

 

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Reflections on “Race against the machine” [Brynjolfsson]

On 11/08/2012, in 21st century, business, change, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, economics, emerging technologies, engineering, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, pace of change, programming, reinvent, robotics, by Daniel Christian

 

 

 

 

 

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Digital Revolution’s Winners And Losers — from Information Week by John Foley
Workers with in-demand digital skills benefit most as computers increasingly take over
everyday tasks. In this InformationWeek 500 video, MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson discusses
how this trend could affect your enterprise.

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From DSC:
I agree with Erik that a large swath of people are being left behind, mainly because of technological changes and the pace of those changes. Again I ask, can you hear the engines roar?  How can we re-train folks to take advantage of the 3+million open jobs out there? How can we reinvent ourselves as quickly as possible?
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The pace has changed -- don't come onto the track in a Model T
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Addendums:
  • Andrew McAfee: Are droids taking our jobs?
    Robots and algorithms are getting good at jobs like building cars, writing articles, translating — jobs that once required a human. So what will we humans do for work? Andrew McAfee walks through recent labor data to say: We ain’t seen nothing yet. But then he steps back to look at big history, and comes up with a surprising and even thrilling view of what comes next.
  • America’s jobs gap: 9 million — from cnn.com by Tami Luhby
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Average student debt climbs to $26,600 for Class of 2011 [TICAS]

On 11/08/2012, in cost of getting a degree, experimentation, new business models, reinvent, staying relevant, student-related, United States, by Daniel Christian

Average student debt climbs to $26,600 for Class of 2011 — from The Institute for College Access & Success
Report, website include state-by-state and campus-by-campus debt levels for 2011 graduates

 

Average student debt now up to 26K+ for Class of 2011

 

Excerpt:

TICAS recently released Student Debt and the Class of 2011, our seventh annual report on the debt carried by new college graduates. Hundreds of news outlets around the country have already run stories featuring our findings, including The New York Times, USA Today, and PBS NewsHour.

We found that two-thirds of college seniors who graduated from public and private nonprofit four-year schools in 2011 carried an average of $26,600 in student loan debt, up 5% from the previous year. Private student loans comprised about one-fifth of the Class of 2011’s debt. Meanwhile, unemployment for recent graduates dipped from last year’s peak of 9.1% but remained high at 8.8% (still less than half the unemployment rate for young adults with only a high school diploma).

The report also shows that average student debt levels vary widely by state as well as by college. To view debt levels for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and more than 1,000 individual U.S. colleges and universities, visit our companion interactive map.

Read the press release
Read the report
Use the interactive map

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From DSC:
The above items support the need for greater experimentation within higher ed.

Also see:

 

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EDUCAUSE’s new Breakthrough Models Academy [Little]

On 11/07/2012, in experimentation, innovation, reinvent, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

EDUCAUSE’s new Breakthrough Models Academy — from nextgenlearning.org by Julie Little

Excerpt:

Across today’s news outlets are stories on the critical issues facing higher education. In the Huffington Post last June, Wagner College president Richard Guarasci summed those issues: “The crisis facing American higher education is rooted in a series of challenges around access, cost, affordability, learning outcomes and institutional priorities.” Guarasci went on to describe the depth and complexity of each of these challenges. Solutions to these challenges reside at the nexus of innovation and change catalyzed by technology. However, critical to ideating and advancing these solutions are knowledgeable, creative, visionary leaders.

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Harrison College lowering tuition — an excellent example/direction if we want to stay relevant

On 11/06/2012, in budgets, business, colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, economics, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, leadership, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, United States, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Harrison College lowering tuition -- an excellent example/direction if we want to stay relevant

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Innovations that could impact education and future directions/possibilities

On 11/06/2012, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, e-books, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, mirroring and/or multiple devices, multi-touch, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, programming, reinvent, smart/connected TV, staying relevant, technologies for your home, trends, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Yahoo! and Samsung form multi-year partnership to deliver Interactive TV — from dailyfinance.com by Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Partnership to provide real-time, enhanced entertainment and advertising to homes across the United States

Excerpt:

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Yahoo! (NAS: YHOO) and Samsung today announced an expanded multi-year partnership to integrate Yahoo!’s Broadcast Interactivity platform into Samsung 2012 Smart TVs. Yahoo! Broadcast Interactivity, powered by its automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, SoundPrintTM, will be deployed in Samsung’s SyncPlus platform, enabling new opportunities for intelligent content discovery, advertising and engagement, bringing an unprecedented level of interactivity in the living room.

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From DSC:
Another steps towards:

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

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A fifth of TV sets connected to the Internet by 2016 — from digitaltvresearch.com

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Welcome to Star Scholar U., where a personal brand is the credential — from The Chronicle by By Jeffrey R. Young

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Welcome to Star Scholar U 2

Keri Rasmussen for The Chronicle

Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason U., helped build an online-education site, Marginal Revolution U, based on a blog he runs with Alex Tabarrok. “In part we did it just to show it could be done—that you can have a Web site which looks nice and works,” Mr. Cowen said.

 

Excerpt:

A new kind of university has begun to emerge: Call it Star Scholar U.

Professors with large followings and technical prowess are breaking off to start their own online institutions, delivering courses with little or no backing from traditional campuses.

Founding a university may sound dramatic, but in an era of easy-to-use online tools it can be done as a side project—akin to blogging or writing a textbook. Soon there could be hundreds of Star Scholar U’s.

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5 perspectives on the future of the human interface — from techcrunch.com by Alex Williams

Excerpt:

The next generation of apps will require developers to think more of the human as the user interface. It will become more about the need to know how an app works while a person stands up or with their arms in the air more so than if they’re sitting down and pressing keys with their fingers.

Also see:

 

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Rethinking carrots: A new method for measuring what players find most rewarding and motivating about your game — from gamasutra.com by Scott Rigby, Richard Ryan

Excerpt:

The Player Experience of Need Satisfaction model (PENS) outlines three basic psychological needs, those of competence, autonomy, and relatedness, that we have demonstrated lie at the heart of the player’s fun, enjoyment, and valuing of games. By collecting players’ reports of how these needs are being satisfied, the PENS model can strongly and significantly predict positive experiential and commercial outcomes, in many cases much more strongly than more traditional measures of fun and enjoyment. And despite the simplicity of the model conceptually, it shows promise as a “unified theory” of the player experience by demonstrating predictive value regardless of genre, platform, or even the individual preferences of players.

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Pearson project will let professors mix free and paid content in e-textbooks — from The Chronicle by Alisha Azevedo

Excerpt:

Pearson, a major textbook publisher, continued its push into digital education on Monday by introducing a service that allows instructors to create e-textbooks using open-access content and Pearson material.

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A river of data — from educationnext.org by Bror Saxberg
Making the learning experience more effective

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How should teaching change in the age of Siri? –– from MindShift

Excerpt:

 Short of banning smartphones (a short-term solution, at best), the evolution of artificial intelligence services like Siri means that there will be a shift from a focus on finding the answer as the endpoint to a greater focus on analysis. You have the answer, but so what? What does that answer mean in a real-life situation?

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Degreed launches crowdfunding campaign for reimagined ‘digital diploma’ — from gigaom.com by Ki Mae Heussner
San Francisco startup Degreed is challenging the traditional college diploma with an online service that tracks and scores educational achievements from established institutions as well as new online learning platforms. Ahead of a public launch in 2013, Degreed this week began a crowd funding campaign.

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A capitalist’s dilemma, whoever wins on Tuesday — from the New York Times by Clayton Christensen

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In a way, this mirrors the microeconomic paradox explored in my book “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” which shows how successful companies can fail by making the “right” decisions in the wrong situations. America today is in a macroeconomic paradox that we might call the capitalist’s dilemma. Executives, investors and analysts are doing what is right, from their perspective and according to what they’ve been taught. Those doctrines were appropriate to the circumstances when first articulated — when capital[From DSC: or from an educational perspective, we could use the word information] was scarce.

But we’ve never taught our apprentices that when capital is abundant and certain new skills are scarce, the same rules are the wrong rules. Continuing to measure the efficiency of capital prevents investment in empowering innovations that would create the new growth we need because it would drive down their RONA, ROCE and I.R.R.

 

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Gartner sees 821M unit smart device mkt in 2012; 1.2B 2013 — from forbes.com by Eric Savitz

 

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Could we use social media/tools to get input from all constituencies in order to set future strategic directions?

On 11/05/2012, in communications, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, internet, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, reinvent, social learning / networks, social media, staying relevant, strategy, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

 

Could we use social media/tools to get input from all constituencies in order to set future strategic directions?

 

 

From DSC:
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Could we use social media/tools in order to get input from all of the constituencies of a
college or university? Such input could be used to create innovative ideas,
establish buy-in, and build future strategic direction/vision.
What would that look like? Work like?

I wasn’t sure where to put the workplace here…but certainly that is also a key piece of our future.

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The most important education technology in 200 years [Regalado]

On 11/03/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, analytics, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, disruption, education technology, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online tutoring, reinvent, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

 

Excerpt:

Agarwal believes that education is about to change dramatically. The reason is the power of the Web and its associated data-crunching technologies. Thanks to these changes, it’s now possible to stream video classes with sophisticated interactive elements, and researchers can scoop up student data that could help them make teaching more effective. The technology is powerful, fairly cheap, and global in its reach. EdX has said it hopes to teach a billion students.

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Which brings me to this graphic:

 

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Also see:

 

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Business model innovation: A blueprint for higher education [Flanagan]

On 11/02/2012, in changing business models, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, new business models, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Business model innovation: A blueprint for higher education — from Educause by Christine Flanagan

Excerpt:

Business model innovation is one of the most challenging components of 21st-century leadership. Making incremental improvements to a business model—creating new efficiencies, expanding into adjacent markets—is hard enough. Developing and experimenting with new business models that truly transform how an institution delivers value (while continuing to drive the performance of the current business model) is exceptionally difficult. Yet nowhere is the imperative for business model innovation more prevalent or more relevant than in higher education, which is under intense scrutiny and facing rising costs and potential disruption from all angles.

To compete in a world where the shelf life of business models is shortening, higher education leaders need the tools, skills, and experience to envision, test, and implement new business models. They must believe in the power of experimenting, in the real world, with a network of collaborators who have the audacity to change everything. As the legendary innovation mastermind Clayton Christensen says: “You don’t change a company by giving them ideas. You change them by training them to think a different way.”1

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Why is American Higher Education so averse to change? [Selingo]

On 11/01/2012, in 21st century, career development, change, dangers of the status quo, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, United States, by Daniel Christian

Why is American Higher Education so averse to change? — from Jeff Selingo

Excerpt:

In my 15 years of reporting on higher education—and especially in the last year as I have reported for my forthcoming book on the future of higher education—colleges and universities have come to remind me of other American content industries that have been disrupted in the last decade: newspapers and magazines, music, and book publishing. In many ways, colleges and universities are following the same playbook:

 

From DSC:
I hope that higher education learns from what the Internet did to other industries.  I hope we can reinvent ourselves, stay relevant, and ride the wave to create WIN-WIN situations…and not get crushed by it.

 

 

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Does the U.S. accreditation system discriminate against online learning? [Bates]

On 11/01/2012, in accreditation, Canada, dangers of the status quo, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, United States, by Daniel Christian

Does the U.S. accreditation system discriminate against online learning? — from Tony Bates

Excerpt:

Furthermore, problems remain in both Canada and the USA if students want to start taking online courses from an institution out of state or province then use that for advancement by transferring to a local university. The answer of course is more flexible credit transfer arrangements, more flexible prior learning assessment, and challenge exams, where students can demonstrate their learning without having to work through courses they have already taken elsewhere. Even some of the more prestigious research universities in Canada are realising that they need to be more flexible if they are to attract lifelong learners, for instance. Thus it’s as much up to the institutions as the regulators to ensure there is some flexibility in the system for students taking out of state or out of province online courses.

Yes, there needs to be sensible protections against fraud and fly-by-night online operators, but too often the restrictions, regulations and barriers are steeped in practices that no longer apply in an open, knowledge-based society. Every institution should be examining the structure of its courses, its admission requirements, its arrangements for credit transfer and prior learning assessment, and its strategy for lifelong learning, if it is to be fit for purpose in the 21st century. It is not an issue just of online learning.

From DSC:
Questions I often ponder re: accreditation:

  • Who sits on accrediting boards these days? Is it not people inside the current system?
  • What responsibilities do accreditation bodies have on them to enable/support change (where appropriate)?
  • Are such accreditation bodies feeling the pressure to help colleges and universities reinvent themselves in order to stay relevant? Or are they maintaining the status quo by all means possible?
  • Whose interests are ultimately being served by the current methods of accreditation? (I hope it’s the students!)

 

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“The Walmart of Education” appears to be materializing in front of our eyes [Christian]

On 10/27/2012, in 21st century, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, reinvent, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
“The Walmart of Education [Christian, 2008]” appears to be materializing in front of our eyes.

 

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All-You-Can-Eat-Education for $30 a Month
Via: OnlineUniversities.com

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The university of the future in Australia [Ernst & Young]

On 10/24/2012, in Australia, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, reinvent, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

 

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“A thousand year old industry on the cusp of profound change”

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