staying relevant

It is time for a new kind of B-school: Blair Sheppard, Dean, Fuqua Business School (Duke)

On 10/18/2010, in 21st century, business, change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, higher education, leadership, staying relevant, workplace, by Daniel Christian

It is time for a new kind of B-school: Blair Sheppard, Dean, Fuqua Business School — from MBAUniverse.com (original item from deanstalk.net)

As the world recovers from the crisis, B-schools need to adapt and change to serve the new realities. It is time for a new kind of B-school. That’s the message from Dr Blair Sheppard, Dean, Fuqua Business School, Duke University, USA, while speaking at the 3rd International Business School Shanghai Conference, hosted by the Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China on Monday, October 18, 2010.

Said Dr Sheppard, “Given the massive changes in the way business works today, compared to how things were 20 years back, it is clear that it’s time for a new kind of B-school. We need to reinvent MBA education, else we will become increasingly irrelevant.”

Dr Sheppard highlighted four key pillars of the new MBA model. He said that B-schools need to move from:

— Regionally based, to Global in form and spirit
— Isolated from the University, to Linked across the university
— Focused on Daytime MBA, to offering full suite of offerings
— From ‘disciplined-based’, to engaging the fundamental issues confronting the world

Tagged with: change • game-changing environment • leadership • reinvent • staying relevant • workplace

The world changed, colleges missed it — from edreformer.com by Tom Vander Ark

A bunch of colleges are going out of business, only they don’t know it. They pretend that trimming costs and jacking tuition is a solution. They haven’t come to terms with a world where anyone can learn anything almost anywhere for free or cheap. Art Levine, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, sees three major change forces: new competition, a convergence of knowledge producers, and changing demographics.
…
To Art’s list of three big change forces, add shrinking government support, the press for more accountability, and emerging technology…the next few decades will be marked by a lumpy move to competency-based learning…instant information and the ability to learn anything anywhere.
…
The shift to personal digital learning is on. Some colleges get that. Others will seek bailouts until they go out of business. Working adults are getting smart on their own terms.

From DSC:
Time will tell if Tom’s assertions are too harsh here, but personally, I think he’s right.

I have it that:

There is a bubble in higher ed
There also exists a perfect storm that’s been forming for years within higher ed and the waves are cresting
.
Institutions of higher education need to check themselves before they become the next Blockbuster
.
We must not discount the disruptive powers of technology nor the trends taking place today (for a list of some of these trends, see the work of Gary Marx, as well as Yankelovish’s (2005) Ferment and Change: Higher Education in 2015)
Innovation is not an option for those who want to survive and thrive in the future.

Specifically, I have it that we should be experimenting with:

Significantly lowering the price of getting an education (by 50%+)
Providing greater access (worldwide)
Offering content in as many different ways as we can afford to produce
Seeking to provide interactive, multimedia-based content that is created by teams of specialists — for anytime, anywhere, on any-device type of learning (24x7x365) — at any pace!
“Breaking down the walls” of the physical classroom
Pooling resources and creating consortiums
Reflecting on what it will mean if online-based exchanges are setup to help folks develop competencies
Working to change our cultures to be more willing to innovate and change
Thinking about how to become more nimble as organizations
Turning more control over to individual learner and having them create the content
Creating and implementing more cross-disciplinary assignments

Tagged with: 24x7x365 • adult learners/learning • budgetary • business side of he • competency-based learning/education • consortiums • cost of getting an education • cross-disciplinary assignments • culture • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • disruption • educational technology • financial aid • game-changing environment • innovation • leadership • Lifelong learning • new business models in he • online learning • perfect storm • staying relevant • strategy • traditional • trends • United States • Using teams • Walmart of Education

We have to turn this situation around…

On 09/09/2010, in community colleges, creativity, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, passions, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:

Here in the United States, the waste continues…

As I was reading the article mentioned below, I was reminded of a graphic I saw a while back after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion:

This graphic reminds me of a very valuable resource that still isn’t being “realized” — and, as a result, the leakage continues to cause a mess. And that has to do with the amazing amount of talents, abilities, and gifts that are being wasted daily when students drop out of school or college.

So I appreciated hearing about what some of the community colleges are doing to try to “cap the spill” — to stop this waste of talent.

We must help students find and develop their passions. Should we look at changing some of the requirements/curriculums out there? If an emphasis on STEM isn’t working, is it time to try something else like arts, music, game design, shop/woodworking, automotive work, or something else that many of these same students might be more passionate about?

Addendum 4/5/11:

Great graphic that illustrates the COST to us when students drop out of school

Also see:

Community Colleges Get Creative With Remedial Education — from edweek.org by Caralee Adams

Record numbers of students are arriving on community college campuses this fall, but a majority of them—nearly 60 percent—aren’t academically prepared to handle the classwork.

Three out of every five community college students need at least one remedial course, and fewer than 25 percent of those students successfully earn a degree within eight years, according to the National Education Longitudinal Study.

“We really have to figure out how to get developmental education right, or any dream that we have of increasing the number of college graduates in this country or eliminating disparities across racial and ethnic groups—that dream is going to tank,” said Kay McClenney, the director of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement and an adjunct faculty member in the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin.

Pushed by federal expectations, tightening budgets, expanding enrollments, and what the foundation-supported Strong American Schools campaign estimatedRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader to be a $2 billion-and-rising annual cost for remedial education, community colleges have started experimenting with a range of strategies to address those numbers.

Tagged with: community college • creativity • education • education reform • engaging students • innovation • passions • staying relevant • strategy • student-related • surviving • United States

Well…there goes another one who discounted the impact/value of technology…

On 08/27/2010, in disruption, education technology, game-changing environment, innovation, internet, leadership, staying relevant, strategy, by Daniel Christian

Blockbusted: A Netflix Knock-Out, Bad Metaphors on the Path to the Movie Monster’s Bankruptcy — from Fast Company – Technology by Austin Carr

The Blockbuster age is fading, and at last the company is preparing for bankruptcy. In the past two years, the shrinking video-rental store has struggled to stay afloat with $920 million in debt, drowning all the while in revenue losses of $1.1 billion. The LA Times reports that Blockbuster executives and senior debt holders have entered discussions with major movie studios for a “pre-planned” bankruptcy mid-September.

But for everyone other than Blockbuster’s sunny faced spin masters, bankruptcy was about as surprising as another Rocky comeback. Blockbuster’s brick-and-mortar business was unviable in the digital world, and competitors Netflix and Redbox took every advantage to pick apart the dinosaur’s carcass. The company’s numbers have signaled extinction, too, with value withering from $8.4 billion when Viacom purchased it in 1994 to total market value of $24 million today. Continuing the Mesozoic metaphor, here’s why bankruptcy hit Blockbuster like a surprise asteroid.

Netflix Who?

From DSC:
And I would add the questions:

“Who cares about the iPod?”
“What does Internet-related technology have to do with our business anyway?”

In a presentation I created last year (see Section II), I used Blockbuster as an example of an organization who completely discounted the disruptive impact of technology..and now they are paying the price (along with much of the newspaper industry).

There IS a lesson here for those of us in higher ed.

I’ll end this posting with the following quote/excerpt:

“This is a pattern we see over and over,” he said, of the many parallels he could draw to Blockbuster’s financial troubles. “If a company is not able to keep up with the changing needs of its customer, it will become irrelevant,” he said.

Ultimately, it was these words which may have saved the company. Blockbuster was not able to keep up with the changing needs of its customers.

Blockbuster has become irrelevant.

Relevant addendum:

I just ran across this posting on educationstormfront — What Blockbuster Can Teach Higher Ed

Tagged with: disruption • educational technology • game-changing environment • innovation • internet • leadership • staying relevant • strategy

Design Boost

On 07/30/2010, in business, collaboration, computer science, creativity, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, innovation, mobile learning, programming, staying relevant, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Design Boost is a four day bootcamp for prototyping digital learning products.

We’re looking for promising young innovators, to bring learning into the 21st century, to create digital products that excite and engage kids in meaningful learning. In partnership with IDEO, Startl is offering a multi-day immersion for designers and creators, hackers and coders, builders and entrepreneurs.

Boost isn’t about sitting around dreaming up pie-in-the-sky ideas. Its an intense whirlwind of activity, with lots of hands-on, real-world involvement in the design and product development process. You’ll be taking the seed of an idea and seeing whether you can grow it into an effective and marketable learning product. Along the way, you’ll be steeped in how to create user-centered, learning-rich and market-smart designs and learn the tricks that seasoned entrepreneurs use to generate new products quickly and cheaply. But you won’t be doing this on your own. You’ll be surrounded by inspiring peers and collaborating with them to amp up your creativity and rigor.

Startl’s first series of Design Boost will focus on the design of mobile applications for learning, targeting these primary platforms: Android, iPhone, Symbian and BlackBerry. We’re making this the focus because there’s a serious lack of high-quality mobile applications for learning and education on the market, so there’s a massive opportunity to make a difference and make your mark.

The Boot Camp will be a launching pad for participants to make their next entrepreneurial move, be it with Startl, IDEO, local firms, national brands or beyond.

Apply for the November 2010 Mobile Design Boost to be held in San Francisco November 11-14, 2010. (Application deadline – September 17, 2010)

The Basics – What You Need to Know Before Applying
A primer on what Startl is seeking in teams.

Design Boost FAQ’s

Mobile Design Boost Schedule & Agenda

…

From DSC:
Are there many college-level courses out there like this? This is a very interesting, real-world, engaging, hands-on approach — while offering numerous opportunities to collaborate.

Media:Scape-based setups would work well here.

Tagged with: business • collaboration • computer science • emerging technologies • engaging students • entrepreneurship • innovation • Keeping students engaged • Mobile learning • programming • staying relevant • student-related

“Online education is lurking”

On 04/21/2010, in colleges, disruption, higher education, innovation, staying relevant, universities, by Daniel Christian

Online education is lurking — from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity by Daniel L. Bennett

Our friend Jane Shaw of the Pope Center wrote an exceptional essay about how online education is lurking in the background, waiting for its moment to revolutionize college education as we now know it. The full piece is worth reading, but here are a few excerpts.

The Iceman Cometh — from the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy by Jane Shaw
One theory suggests that higher education institutions will experience the fate of industrial dinosaurs.

Christensen’s unique discovery was that even when existing companies see clearly that a new “disruptive” technology is coming along, they can’t stop it, adopt it, or control it.

Because they are caught in a web of their own traditions and ongoing business relationships, they cannot incorporate disruptive innovations—even though they are good at the kind of innovations that lead to better performance for their traditional customers. Such companies are often well-managed and much admired, with farsighted leaders who see the technology bearing down on them, but they remain frozen in place and the freight train runs them down.

Christensen has since written about K-12 education in this light, but the lessons are even more apt in higher education. Many colleges and universities are trying to tame the new technology—primarily, online education—but they may not be able to muster the forces to avoid disaster.

…

How does Christensen’s “disruptive technology” apply to the university setting? Most people would agree that such a technology is lurking on the Internet in the form of online education, a technology that could revolutionize education. But (shades of fire and ice) we don’t know how it will happen. Here are some ideas.

Tagged with: disruption • innovation • online learning • staying relevant

Innovation — will the strictly f2f environment be able to keep/measure up?

On 04/21/2010, in digital audio, digital video, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, game-changing environment, staying relevant, tools, by Daniel Christian

Camtasia Relay 2 brings searchable video to lecture capture — from The Journal by David Nagel

From DSC:
The idea of being able to search a lecture for a particular section/point seems very useful to me. This article made me reflect on the question (again) of where is the innovation occurring? Is is not within the digital, online, and hybrid-learning worlds? If this sort of innovation continues in these spaces — and I don’t see any signs of these trends abating in the future — will strictly face-to-face environments be able to keep up? Will they be as competitive, relevant, and effective in the new learning worlds that are quickly developing before our eyes?

Tagged with: digital audio • digital video • elearning • emerging technologies • innovation • lecture recording • online learning • staying relevant • tools

Tagged with: innovation • K-12 • policy • staying relevant

Tagged with: higher education • K-12 • staying relevant

Next Entries

Learning Ecosystems

It is time for a new kind of B-school: Blair Sheppard, Dean, Fuqua Business School (Duke)

My fear for many institutions of higher education…

Well…there goes another one who discounted the impact/value of technology…

“Online education is lurking”

Innovation — will the strictly f2f environment be able to keep/measure up?

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