Walmart of Education

Reflections on “Is college overrated?”

On 07/13/2010, in cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

Is college overrated? — from USAToday.com by Patrick Welsh

By Web Bryant, USA TODAY

From DSC:
Those of us in higher education better damn well pause for some serious time of reflection when we continue to see this type of question being asked out there. We had better address it head-on, as I have it that the bubble is already starting to burst in some institutions of higher education — and what’s just as troubling to some, is that the Internet continues its path towards Disruption. But whether you think that there is a bubble or not, the bottom line is this: When we even see this question being asked, we have a problem.

And we had better figure out a way to deliver education at a 50%+ discount/savings. Perhaps there needs to be a continuum of pricing related to how much time a student has access to a full-time faculty member…or perhaps there are different pricing structures for 100- and 200-level courses as opposed to 300- and 400- level courses…perhaps you get a price break when you take a course taught by a grad student…

We need to start thinking much more creatively about pricing structures and how we can get the price of a college education down to much more affordable prices.

We do not want to be in an overvalued* position — a position we will be in if we maintain the status quo.

* What does overvalued mean? — from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/overvalued.asp

A stock with a current price that is not justified by its earnings outlook or price/earnings (P/E) ratio and, therefore, is expected to drop in price. Overvaluation may result from an emotional buying spurt, which inflates the stock’s market price, or from a deterioration in a company’s financial strength.

Investors may be willing to pay more for stocks with superior growth potential, but they don’t want to overpay for a company with growth prospects that don’t justify its current market price. One way to determine whether a stock may be overvalued is to look at the price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio. For example, a stock is generally considered to be fairly valued if the PEG ratio is 1 (which means the P/E ratio equals the estimated earnings growth), and possibly overvalued if the PEG is more than 1.

Tagged with: cost of getting an education • Walmart of Education

Reflections from the article “Evaluating Part-Time Faculty”

On 07/12/2010, in cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, education reform, future of higher education, game-changing environment, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, using teams, by Daniel Christian

Evaluating Part-Time Faculty — from Academic Impressions by Daniel Fusch

This fall, the US Department of Education is expected to release a report showing a further drop in the percentage of US faculty who are tenured or tenure-track (which as of 2007 had already dropped to 31%, down from 57% in 1975). This comes on the heels of a recent study published in the journal Educational Policy that showed lower persistence rates for freshmen who have many of their courses taught by adjuncts, prompting fresh debate over what the increased use of contingent faculty may mean for the quality of education.

From DSC:
I don’t mean to be critical or find fault here…but I do wonder how many resources are put into full-time faculty’s training and development in terms of helping them learn how to TEACH (vs. doing research, publishing their findings, etc.). Teaching is tough and is both a science and an art. Few can be good at everything.

Also, I think there is an emphasis on teaching at some institutions, but there may be more of an emphasis on publishing and doing research at other institutions.

For example, I went to Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Currently, NU charges about $55,000 a year to go there. Does the student get top notch TEACHING? In many cases, I doubt it. The students may get subject matter experts (SME’s) who know their subject matter like the back of their hand or they make be taking a course from someone who has carved out a name for himself/herself in a particular discipline…but that doesn’t mean they know how to teach that material. Also, it doesn’t mean that many students will ever get to take a class from these folks, as they may be getting a grad student teaching some of their core courses…I know I did.

Also, this is all the more reason that teams of specialists will be/should be used to create and deliver content. You want the best SME’s you can get…but you need to back them up with the resources to create the best all-around product. You need the skillsets found in instructional designers, programmers, web designers, interaction designers, graphic designers, legal experts, etc. — the best that you can afford to create engaging, interactive, multimedia-based, personalized content.

You can bet that the “Forthcoming Walmart of Education” will get this right! And when they do, watch out. They will leave many institutions in their dust.

Tagged with: education reform • future of higher education • game-changing environment • Using teams • Walmart of Education

Free Online Journalism Classes Begin To Gain Ground

On 07/09/2010, in future of higher education, game-changing environment, journalism, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, open courseware and systems, by Daniel Christian

Free Online Journalism Classes Begin To Gain Ground – from Media Shift via Ray Schroeder:

The CEO of Creative Commons, Joi Ito, is currently teaching a free online journalism class through Peer 2 Peer University, an online community of “open study groups for short university-level courses.” The online class syncs with a graduate-level class Ito teaches at Keio University in Japan, and features a UStream presentation and IRC chat once a week. IRC chat? Yes, the class glues together tools like UStream and IRC, and the platform, which was built on a Drupal base, continues to evolve. P2PU’s organizers make it clear they know the tools aren’t perfect, so they’re using feedback from participants to refine things as they go.

Tagged with: future of higher education • game-changing environment • journalism • ocw • online learning • Walmart of Education

Community Colleges cutting back on open access — from the NY Times

On 06/24/2010, in community colleges, cost of getting a degree, game-changing environment, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

Community Colleges cutting back on open access — from the NY Times

In this economy, community colleges are widely seen as the solution to many problems. Displaced workers are registering in droves to earn credentials that might get them back in the game. Strapped parents, daunted by the cost of four-year universities, are encouraging their children to spend two years at the local community college.

…

But for students and professors at overstretched colleges, these are hardly the best of times. With state financing slashed almost everywhere, many institutions have cut so deeply into their course offerings and their faculty rosters that they cannot begin to handle the influx of students.

In some parts of the country, the budget stresses are so serious that the whole concept of community colleges as open-access institutions — where anyone, with any educational background, can enroll at any point in life — is becoming more an aspiration than a reality.

…

Because of budget cuts, California community colleges, the largest higher education system in the country, enrolled 21,000 fewer students in the 2009-10 academic year than the previous year. Some districts reported turning away about half of the new students who tried to enroll for the 2009-10 academic year, said Jack Scott, the chancellor of California’s community colleges.

From DSC:
In this game-changing environment, does anyone really believe we are going to go back to the way things were? Is it possible that these shut-out students will take a right-turn and try to accomplish their goals via different means — perhaps employing some non-traditional means even?

Tagged with: community college • cost of getting an education • game-changing environment • Walmart of Education

Why scenario thinking (more than scenario planning) is critical for executives today

On 06/23/2010, in future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

Why scenario thinking (more than scenario planning) is critical for executives today — from Ross Dawson

The point is that scenario planning is a process that, done ineffectively, does not challenge or change assumptions or beliefs about what is likely to happen. Scenario thinking is an entirely different matter. It is a state of mind where very different futures are seen as plausible and possible.

One of the most valuable outcomes of an effective scenario planning process is that it fosters scenario thinking among the participating executives. A good set of scenarios can be very valuable in setting strategy. However if executives are stimulated by the process to think in terms of possibilities rather than likelihoods, that can be far more powerful (emphasis DSC).

Given the increasing pace of change in most industries, the timeframe within which forecasting is useful is ever-shrinking. Building effective scenario thinking capabilities is essential for being able to build robust strategies and in all leadership development.

Tagged with: future • future of higher education • game-changing environment • leadership • vision • Walmart of Education

SponsorMyDegree.com

On 06/23/2010, in cost of getting a degree, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

Students Beg for Tuition Money Online — from The Chronicle by Sophia Li

As students’ budgets grow tighter than ever, some are resorting to an unusual means to support their college educations: begging for tuition help from strangers online.

A Web site called SponsorMyDegree.com has drawn about 10,000 users since its creation in 2008 by a Colorado couple, Henner and Lilac Mohr. Students can sign up free and create a profile with information about themselves: photos, their hobbies, their career aspirations, the reasons underlying their pleas for help.

Tagged with: cost of getting an education • Walmart of Education • Web 2.0

First newspapers, now universities: It’s transformation time — from WashingtonPost.com

On 06/11/2010, in disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

First newspapers, now universities: It’s transformation time — from WashingtonPost.com by Philip Auerswald (emphasis DSC)

All of this creates opportunities for a new set of educational leaders–the “edupunks” whose disruptive innovations are featured in an excellent new book by Anya Kamenetz titled DIY U. Online degree programs such as those offered by the University of Phoenix–which alone now enrolls as many students as the entirety of the Big Ten–represent only the first wave of competitive challenge to colleges.

…

That is, of course, until they wander over to the financial aid office. Because, as we all know (trend 2): There ain’t no money in the piggy bank. For all the blather about “saving for college,” the reality is that the average American family isn’t going to be able to put away a hundred thousand dollars for each child headed to college. This means that when tuition time comes, they’ll be borrowing. Only, guess what? That’s right (trend 3) the banks aren’t going to want to lend, because, as noted above, credit markets have tightened more-or-less permanently. And neither state governments–cue laugh track–nor the federal government is going to be able to cover the difference.

…

What all of this means for leadership in higher education is that while resistance is futile, obsolescence is far from assured. The coming transformation in higher education will be gradual, and it will be incomplete. Many of today’s elite institutions will not only survive, they will prosper. Other institutions that clearly define, measure, and communicate the value they bring to individual students–and not just to society as a whole–will prosper. As for those whose strategy is to repackage past glories as a vision for the future on forlorn trips to bankrupt legislatures, the road ahead will bear a greater resemblance to Grand Theft Auto than to The Paper Chase.

Future success in higher-ed will depend on agility, clear vision, and a willingness to deal with the world as it is–rather than as we would have it be. While learning is still in for today’s students, school’s out.

Philip E. Auerswald is Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, and associate at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He co-organized the GMU-APLU Presidents’ Symposium on the Future of Collegiate Education at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, held this month.

Tagged with: disruption • future of higher education • game-changing environment • leadership • Walmart of Education

Higher education — returning to the topic of bubbles…

On 06/11/2010, in future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

From Stephen Downes:

Is the Higher Education Bubble Going to Burst?There has been more and more discussion of the education bubble, especially in light of online learning. Alison Leithner links to an editorial by Glenn Reynolds in the Washington Examiner and summarizes, “Reynolds claims that, similar to many properties sold during the housing market bubble, the value of university education today is simply not worth the amount of money people currently are paying. Reynolds also proposes that consumers are starting to realize this.” Leithner herself is sceptical. “Èmployers will still need some way to filter out the exceptional candidates for their posted positions. They will just find a new criterion upon which to judge people. If the higher education bubble burst, it will surely be because a new bubble has started to form. Alison Leithner, Change.org, June 9, 2010 4:34 p.m..

Is YouTube bursting higher education’s bubble? Not so fast… — from Education Futures by John Moravec

From DSC:
This link provides my thoughts on where we’re heading.

Tagged with: future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education • Walmart of Education

Reflections on Seth Godin’s posting “The coming melt-down in higher education – as seen by a marketer”

On 04/29/2010, in colleges, community colleges, disruption, face-to-face, future of higher education, game-changing environment, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, universities, using teams, by Daniel Christian

The coming melt-down in higher education (as seen by a marketer) — by Seth Godin

For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing.

I’m afraid that’s about to crash and burn. Here’s how I’m looking at it…

From DSC:
Seth’s perspectives on this are similar to what I’ve been saying — and warning would happen — for years now.

My take on the future of higher education is that someone will get it right and will be able to offer team-created and delivered content 24 x 7 x 365 that is mind-blowing by today’s standards and will be able to package and deliver that content and learning experience at discounts of 50%+ off of today’s prices. Yeah, yeah, yeah I hear ya say. Right Daniel…I’ve heard it all before.. your talk about disruption…about technology, etc. etc. etc.

You might have heard it, but you haven’t seen it in higher ed……....yet! My take on this is that you will see this happen. Massive change. The great commoditization of higher education as we know it today. The bubble is about to burst.

After all, the same publishers are selling the same textbooks to many institutions of higher education. In fact, I’m surprised that some publisher hasn’t yet taken a right turn and started offering degrees.They have access to subject matter experts (SME’s), teams of talented instructional designers, programmers, project managers, interface designers, legal/copyright experts, etc. What they lack is accreditation.

More and more I think societies will become increasingly interested in what you can DO and not where you attended school. Sure, there will still be those companies who want to hire only from ____ , ____, or _____; but that type of hiring perspective may not hold up if that organization is being outperformed by others. Also, who knows if corporations are even going to be around in 20 years. It’s turning into a situation where everyone is their own brand, their own company. Project teams come together, do the project, and then disband.

If students are paying a premium today, they should be paying that premium to go to an institution of higher education that:

Has excellent faculty members — knowledgeable, passionate teachers who know their material cold and know how to teach that material; they are adaptable and are open to changing pedagogy and the use of various kinds of technologies
Emphasizes and rewards teaching — not necessarily research
Provides small class sizes and/or the ability to meet frequently with their professors (not a TA, not a grad student, and not a faculty member who might be a skilled researcher but who doesn’t know how to teach very well)

The thing all of us in higher ed need to be on guard about and the question we need to constantly be asking ourselves is, “How do we keep from becoming a commodity? What value do we bring to the table? Why should someone pay X when they are about to be able to pay 0.25 X elsewhere?”

Tagged with: colleges • community college • disruption • future of higher education • game-changing environment • Using teams • Walmart of Education

Improving quality AND reducing costs — from Tony Bates

On 03/26/2010, in budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

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?

Tagged with: budgetary • cost of getting an education • costs • Walmart of Education

Tagged with: student-related • Walmart of Education

University finds free online learning classes don’t hurt enrollment

On 02/11/2010, in changing business models, game-changing environment, online learning, online media, open courseware and systems, by Daniel Christian

University finds free online learning classes don’t hurt enrollment – Jacqui Cheng, ars technica — resource and quote below from Ray Schroeder

Free online courses aren’t sapping enrollment numbers—in fact, they’re actually helping to spread the word. Those are the preliminary findings out of Brigham Young University, which experimented recently by granting free access to a selection of its distance learning courses. Though further study is needed in order to see whether there’s a significant impact, educators are beginning to see that offering free materials isn’t the end of the world after all.

Tagged with: game-changing environment • ocw • online learning • Walmart of Education

Major disruption on the way

On 01/27/2010, in business side of he, colleges, cost of getting a degree, disruption, elearning, face-to-face, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, internet, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, pace of change, by Daniel Christian

From Ray Schroeder:

A paradigm shift is ahead for higher education – Lori Sturdevant, Star-Tribune
Governor Tim Pawlenty at a Jan. 15 news conference said “You’re going to have the equivalent of iTunes in higher education, where instead of buying a song for 99 cents, you’re going to be able to click on Econ 101 for probably $199 or $399,” the governor predicted. “Unleashing technology … will massively decentralize the delivery of higher education in our country. The idea that we’re going to be here 20 years from now talking about how many more buildings can we put up is going to come into conflict with this new frontier.” Bona fide education forecasters say that Pawlenty isn’t all wrong about an explosion of online learning — though they’re not as sanguine as he is about its cost-saving potential or effectiveness.

Tagged with: budgetary • game-changing environment • higher education • K-12 • learning ecosystem • online learning • Walmart of Education

Higher ed paying attention (hopefully) to the newspaper industry

On 01/26/2010, in budgets, business side of he, higher education, journalism, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday’s Web Site — resource and quote below from Stephen Downes

Newsday’s paid content rollout: 35 subscribers. Yes, that’s right. 35 subscribers. “In late October, Newsday, the Long Island daily that the Dolans bought for $650 million, put its web site, newsday.com, behind a pay wall. The paper was one of the first non-business newspapers to take the plunge by putting up a pay wall, so in media circles it has been followed with interest. Could its fate be a sign of what others, including The New York Times, might expect?”

From DSC:
For those of you who have been following my thoughts on this — as seen here and here as well — those of us in higher ed need to watch what is happening with the newspaper industry. We could easily be next.

Tagged with: journalism • Walmart of Education

Disruptive Innovation in the Classroom — The Journal by Bridget McCrea

On 01/21/2010, in education technology, game-changing environment, higher education, pace of change, by Daniel Christian

Disruptive Innovation in the Classroom — from The Journal by Bridget McCrea
One expert discusses how disruptive innovations like online learning will change the way students learn and progress.

From DSC:
I am not sure we are fully appreciating the scope of the changes about to take place throughout higher education. If we look at what the Internet has done to other industries — and the corresponding (amazingly-short) timeframes it took to turn those industries on their heads — we will begin to have a better appreciation for the massive changes coming down the pike. When the iPod was introduced in October 2003, it didn’t take Apple long to completely dominate the music distribution business. Also, take a look at journalism and how quickly things have changed there (relatively speaking). I believe higher education is next. For more background on my stance on things, you might want to check out two pages/presentations:

The Forthcoming Walmart of Education (Dec 2008):
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/walmartofeducation.htm
A Potential Vision for the Future (Spring/ Summer 2008):
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/visions.htm

Tagged with: challenges • game-changing environment • higher education • K-12 • legislation • Lifelong learning • multimedia • pace of change • recommendations • strategy • technologies • vision • Walmart of Education

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