{"id":1146,"date":"2010-02-09T17:58:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-09T22:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2010-02-10T12:36:55","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T17:36:55","slug":"the-game-changing-environment-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2010\/02\/09\/the-game-changing-environment-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"The game-changing environment continues; an update on my vision of the &#8220;Forthcoming Walmart of Education&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>From DSC:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe following article got me to thinking of the future again&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><a title=\"jobs\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/education\/2010\/feb\/07\/job-losses-universities-cuts\" target=\"_blank\">Thousands to lose jobs as universities prepare to cope with cuts<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"color: #333399;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #333399;\">&#8212; from guardian.co.uk (original posting from Stephen Downes)<br \/>\n<\/span> <span style=\"color: #333399;\">Post-graduates to replace professors |<\/span><span style=\"color: #333399;\"> Staff poised to strike over proposals of cuts<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\">I post this here because I believe that we are at the embryonic stages of some <strong>massive changes<\/strong> that will take place within the world of higher education. The timeframe for these changes, as always, is a bit uncertain. However, I would expect to see some of the following changes to occur (or continue to occur) yet this year: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Cost cutting<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">The cutting of programs<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Laying off of staff and faculty<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Not filling open positions<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">More outsourcing<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">The move towards using more cloud-based-computing models<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">The movement of students to lower-cost alternatives<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Greater utilization of informal learning<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">The rise of online-exchange oriented offerings (i.e. the matching up of those who teach a subject and those who want to learn that subject)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">The threat to traditional ways of doing things and to traditional organizations &#8212; including accreditation agencies &#8212; will cause people within those agencies to be open to thinking differently (though this one will take longer to materialize)<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">The continued growth of online learning &#8212; albeit at a greatly-reduced price<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">&#8230;and more.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\"> <strong>This isn&#8217;t just about a recession.<\/strong> <\/span><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>The Internet is changing the game on yet another industry &#8212; this time, it&#8217;s affecting those of us in the world of higher education. <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #333399;\">When the recession&#8217;s over, we won&#8217;t be going back to the way higher education was set up previous to the year 2010. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>What did those us of in higher education learn from what happened to the music industry? What did we learn from what happened to the video distribution\/entertainment business? To the journalism industry? To the brokerage business? To the travel and hospitality industries? To the bookstores of the world?<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Along these lines&#8230;<strong>back at the end of 2008, I posted a vision entitled, <a title=\"The Forthcoming Walmart of Education\" href=\"http:\/\/www.calvin.edu\/~dsc8\/walmartofeducation.htm\" target=\"_blank\">The Forthcoming Walmart of Education<\/a>. So, where are we on <a title=\"The Forthcoming Walmart of Education\" href=\"http:\/\/www.calvin.edu\/~dsc8\/walmartofeducation.htm\" target=\"_blank\">that vision<\/a><span style=\"color: #333399;\">?<\/span> <\/strong>Well&#8230;so far we have:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Straighterline.com<\/span><span style=\"color: #333399;\"> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">A significant open courseware movement, including MIT Open Courseware, the Open Courseware Consortium, Connexions, Open Content Alliance, OpenLearn, Intute, Globe, Open Yale Courses, Open Education, The Internet Archive and many others<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">University of the People<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">YouTube.edu<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">iTunes U<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Academic Earth<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\">and more&#8230;<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\">I realize that several of these items were in place before or during 2008&#8230;however, at that time, there was no dominant, inexpensive alternative. And there still isn&#8217;t one that has jumped into the lead (the University of Phoenix with their 150,000+ students doesn&#8217;t qualify, as their pricing is not yet nearly aggressive enough as what I&#8217;m predicting will occur). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Though we aren&#8217;t there yet,<\/span><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"> <\/span>there has been significant change that has <em>already taken place<\/em>. So&#8230;if I were an administrator right now, I&#8217;d be asking myself the following key questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Can we reduce tuition and fees by at least 50%? If not, how can <em>some<\/em> of our offerings be delivered at half the price (or more)?<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #333399;\">How are we going to differentiate ourselves?<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #333399;\">How are we going to deliver value?<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\">How are we going to keep from becoming a commodity?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>Are we using teams to create and deliver our courses? If not, why not? What&#8217;s our plans for staying competitive if we don&#8217;t use teams?<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Most likely, further <em>massive changes are forthcoming<\/em>.\u00a0 So fasten your seatbelts and try to stay marketable!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From DSC: The following article got me to thinking of the future again&#8230; Thousands to lose jobs as universities prepare to cope with cuts &#8212; from guardian.co.uk (original posting from Stephen Downes) Post-graduates to replace professors | Staff poised to strike over proposals of cuts I post this here because I believe that we are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,208,57,159,143,36,35,95,3,149,180,55,64,7,14,199,182,62,133,76,44,69,50,145,206,13],"tags":[52,614,587,585,566,661,597,30,603],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-side-of-he","category-cloud-based-computing-apps","category-cost-of-getting-a-degree","category-dangers-of-the-status-quo","category-disruption","category-future-of-higher-education","category-game-changing-environment","category-global-globalization","category-higher-education","category-informal-learning","category-innovation","category-internet","category-it-in-he","category-learning-ecosystem","category-mobile-learning","category-more-voice-more-choice-more-control","category-new-media-literacies","category-online-learning","category-online-media","category-open-courseware-and-systems","category-pace-of-change","category-personalizedcustomized-learning","category-teaching-learning","category-traditional-tradition","category-trends","category-using-teams","tag-budgetary","tag-change","tag-future","tag-game-changing-environment","tag-higher-education","tag-innovation","tag-internet","tag-ple","tag-student-related"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1197,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions\/1197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}