disruption

Professors control course content by publishing e-textbooks — from Convergemag.com

On 05/10/2010, in adjunct faculty, business side of he, change, changing business models, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital textbooks, disruption, e-readers, entrepreneurship, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, publishing, using teams, by Daniel Christian

Earn more, charge less

He also spends less money publishing them. With his original textbook, he printed 3,000 copies and had to store them, so he didn’t break even for a while. That’s not the case with creating e-textbooks.

“You don’t have to have a bunch of books laying around, you don’t have to have the initial startup costs,” Chamberlain said, “and then you can send that savings on back to the students.”

For the past five years, Florida State College at Jacksonville has been driving down the cost of textbooks for its students through the SIRIUS initiative. SIRIUS brings together between 50 and 75 faculty members to create course material and textbooks for classes they’re qualified to teach, said Chief Operations Officer Jack Chambers. So far, they’ve developed 20 interactive general education courses.

The textbooks cost $60.98 in print, but this fall, they will publish online through CafeScribe at a price of $48 each. Eleven other colleges will use them as well.

Before the courses publish, a team of content specialists, instructional designers, quality assurance staff and multimedia personnel review them, as do expert faculty members outside the college (emphasis DSC).

Tagged with: adjunct faculty • disruption • faculty-staff • new business models in he • new publishing models • publishing • Using teams

Congress rejected grant, but free online courses growing — USA Today/Inside Higher Ed

On 05/08/2010, in budgets, business side of he, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, online learning, open courseware and systems, by Daniel Christian

Congress rejected grant, but free online courses growing — USA Today –by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

President Obama’s original plan for community colleges included $500 million to create free online courses that individual institutions could then customize for their students. That money never materialized — it was left out of the student aid legislation in last month’s health care bill.

But a foundation-supported effort with similar goals is actually growing. The National Repository for Online Courses (NROC) was hoping for that government money to help expand its existing vault of free courses, says Gary Lopez, the repository’s director. Still, with online education becoming mainstream and many community colleges experiencing enrollment booms beyond their physical capacity, NROC’s membership is on the rise. At the same time, the repository’s reliance on membership fees calls into question how “free” its courses actually are.

Tagged with: budgetary • ocw • online learning

If the magazine of tomorrow looks like this, what can we do with our “textbooks”?

On 05/05/2010, in Apple, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, publishing, textbooks, by Daniel Christian

Tagged with: Apple • digital textbooks • iPad • new publishing models • publishing • textbooks

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, 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

Future of Education (video)

On 04/29/2010, in change, dangers of the status quo, disruption, by Daniel Christian

…and ends with, “Are you?”

Tagged with: change • dangers of the status quo • disruption • game-changing environment

Shift represents a new commercial model for authoring software — from Clive Sheperd

On 04/29/2010, in disruption, elearning, learning ecosystem, tools, by Daniel Christian

Shift represents a new commercial model for authoring software — from Clive Sheperd

Sandra Arnold of Mercer UK alerted me to a new authoring tool that they are using called Shift. Here’s how the vendors describe the tool on their website:

“Shift by MindMuze is more than an eLearning Authoring Tool. It is an eLearning ecosystem. It can be used to create detailed answers to frequently-asked questions, or sophisticated multimedia presentations, or even interactive tests or quizzes. Best of all, everything is online. That means collaboration is a snap, letting anyone you designate access your project to offer suggestions or make changes, and members of your team can be located anywhere in the world. Need more graphics? Push a button and our team can create some in a matter of hours. And because it is online, there is no software licensing fee, which means you do not pay a penny to develop your courses, unless you choose to ‘publish’.”

Ecosystem or not, the tool is one of a number of web-based authoring solutions allowing authors to…(rest of posting here)

Tagged with: disruption • elearning • learning ecosystem • tools

“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

Another example of the pace of change — and disruption

On 04/21/2010, in disruption, K-12 related, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, policy, virtual K-12 schools, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Consider the following timeline of the Florida Virtual School according to this article:

1997: Florida Virtual School is founded.

2002: Hillsborough County establishes a virtual school program for high school classes.

2007: Hillsborough County starts offering middle school classes.

2008: Hillsborough County starts the elementary program.

2009: New state law requires school districts to offer full-time virtual classes for K-12 students.

Now consider that they started with 77 students.

Now consider that the “…program served more than 71,000 students during the 2008-2009 school year, according to its Web site.” (emphasis DSC)

The pace has changed significantly and quickly

Do not underestimate the disruptive impact of technology.
And I realize it’s not just about the technology…it’s about people.
But technology can connect people to each other at ever-increasing speeds.

Tagged with: disruption • K-12 • legislation • pace of change • policy • virtual schools

2020 forecast: Creating the future of learning

On 04/20/2010, in disruption, future, future of higher education, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Tagged with: disruption • future • future of higher education • teaching & learning

The Virtual University — Anya Kamenetz – via Jeff Wiggerman, DU

On 04/20/2010, in disruption, education technology, elearning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, universities, by Daniel Christian

The Virtual University — by Anya Kamenetz | April 20, 2010 — my thanks to Mr. Jeff Wiggerman at Davenport University for this resource
Why cash-strapped colleges need to stop worrying and learn to love the online classroom.

“At this point, however, the hybrid, NCAT-style course-redesign models seem most compelling. Not only do they show some of the best learning results, but they’re in keeping with the multifaceted history of the university, and they offer the reassurance of familiarity — a scaffolding, if you will, for the transition to new modes of teaching.”

Tagged with: blended learning • course redesign • hybrid learning • online learning

From DSC:
In an assignment for a class last week, I ran across a time-saving tool offered via timetoast.com. If you want to put together interactive timelines — without having to know programming languages or scripting languages — you might be interested in kicking the tires on this web-based tool. As an example, I was able to put together the following timeline of instructional media* in an hour or so:

Further reflections on this from DSC:

As I was putting this timeline together, I saw how Thomas Edison and others proclaimed that technology X would make _____ obsolete…or that invention Y would change education forever. (I made a note to myself that I didn’t want to make such bold proclamations…and appear so foolish…but I’m probably too late in this area!) 🙂
But anyway, I reflected on how school museums were first used, on how radio and instructional television had an impact for a while but then died down in terms of educational use, how the training films of WWII impacted what we know and do today, and the post WWII research in audio-visual-based arenas , and then the advent/rise of the personal computer as well as other educational technologies and the Internet……….and I thought of how disappointed people probably were after the hype ended. But then I reflected upon these technologies as seeds that were planted over time and later produced a harvest. They changed our “wineskins” (see below):
- Radio didn’t really disappear or disappoint. We still use it today; however, not necessarily for education, but we appreciate the audio it delivers to us (whether that be in music or in talkshows). Some seeds were planted…and the wineskins were changed**.
- Motion picture films and TV didn’t disappear or disappoint either, really. We still use these technologies today…but again, not necessarily for education (though some programs are definitely educational in nature and intent). We are used to viewing films and consider it second nature to watch video. So, other seeds were planted…and the wineskins were changed again.**
- Neither did the computer disappear or disappoint. We are still using computers today and they present another piece of the communications juggernaut that’s been created. Again, more seeds were planted…and the wineskins were changed yet again.**
- The Internet is here and growing as well. A significant ROI is being enjoyed with each passing day — and from educational perspectives no doubt. Again, the fields are starting to grow, and are growing quickly now. The seeds are no longer seeds and the wineskins we have today are not like the wineskins from 100+ years ago. **

So what am I saying here?
I’m saying that we are used to using/hearing/seeing audio, video, interactivity, multi-directional communications because of these technologies. They cultivated the ground for people using the technologies that we are:

Comfortable with
Using
and innovating with today.

So when we employ highly-powerful, multimedia-based, educationally-beneficial items on the Net today — when we contribute podcasts, vodcasts, lectures, exercises, animations, etc. to the Net — we can thank these technologies for being the technological ancestors in the tech-family tree. They really didn’t disappoint after all. They were the seeds that were planted over time to create a wonderful harvest….a very powerful communications network…the most powerful one the world has ever known. Not bad for 100 years.

* Based upon article by Robert Reiser:

Reiser, R. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part I: A history of instructional media. ETR&D. Vol. 49(1). pp. 53-64.

**As Jesus once responded when asked about why his disciples didn’t fast, he replied:

¹⁶“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. ¹⁷Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

These technologies created the environment…the proper wineskins…to lay the foundation for the “new wine” to be poured into our worlds without this new wine “running out” and ruining the wineskins. Can you imagine if someone had been able to introduce these technologies within 10-20 years…would they have taken? Given human nature, I doubt it. The wineskins took time to change. The thing is, the pace of change is quickening and is increasingly more difficult to keep up with.

I wonder…will the current wineskins hold? Or are our wineskins now very used to this pace of change?

Tagged with: digital audio • digital learning • digital photography • digital storytelling • digital textbooks • digital video • educational technology • game-changing environment • pace of change • tools

The Specialists — from InsideHigherEd.com

On 04/08/2010, in changing business models, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, online learning, by Daniel Christian

The Specialists — from InsideHigherEd.com
April 5, 2010

Is the “bundled” model of higher education outdated?

Some higher-ed futurists think so. Choosing the academic program at a single university, they say, is a relic of a time before online education made it possible for a student in Oregon to take courses at a university in Florida if she wants.

Since the online-education boom, the notion that students could cobble together a curriculum that includes courses designed and delivered by a variety of different institutions — including for-profit ones — has gained traction in some circles. “As it has with industries from music to news, the logic of digital technology will compel institutions to specialize and collaborate, find economies of scale and avoid duplications,” journalist Anya Kamenetz wrote last week in an op-ed. “Excellent [course] content,” noted the author and higher-ed innovator Peter Smith in an interview earlier this month, “is increasingly commodified and available (emphasis DSC).” Leaders in the liberal arts community recently nodded at the idea that even small colleges could soon teach from open courseware “modules.”

From DSC:
Even at the predominantly face-to-face college where I work, I know that several students have supplemented their educations and/or fulfilled their educational degree programs with online-based courses from other schools. And many students attend several colleges or universities in their pursuit of a degree. So this idea of piece-mealing a degree via the combination of virtual and physical means is not far-fetched at all.

Also, did you notice the word commodity? Anyone who has followed my announcements through the years (as seen here, here, here, and here) will see that I have warned institutions to take steps to guard themselves from becoming a commodity.

Signing off for now with the reminder…do not underestimate the disruptive impact of technology.

Tagged with: disruption • game-changing environment • technologies

A is for App: How smartphones, handheld computers sparked an educational revolution

On 03/26/2010, in 24x7x365 access, change, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, education technology, educational games / serious games, mobile learning, mobile technologies, by Daniel Christian

Above resource is from the Mobile iEducator blog

Tagged with: change • disruption • Mobile learning • mobile technology

Study predicts half of physician continuing education will be online by 2016 — from PRNewswire

On 03/26/2010, in disruption, nursing, online learning, by Daniel Christian

Study predicts half of physician continuing education will be online by 2016 — from PRNewswire [via Ray Schroeder]

TUCSON, Ariz., March 10 /PRNewswire/ — If current trends in the use of online education continue, 50% of continuing medical education (CME) used by physicians will be delivered via the Internet in 2016. This would represent a dramatic increase over the 9% of CME delivered via the Internet in 2008. According to a new study published in the winter, 2010 issue of the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions these changes in how practicing physicians obtain ongoing training could disrupt the multi-billion dollar CME industry in much the same way technological innovations have disrupted other established industries.

Tagged with: disruption • Nursing • online learning

Collaborative learning — For the people, by the people — from Bloomfire.com by Josh Little

On 03/26/2010, in corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, disruption, social learning / networks, training / L&D, by Daniel Christian

Collaborative learning — For the people, by the people — from Bloomfire.com by Josh Little (emphasis below by DSC)

Should training organizations cancel their LMS subscriptions, take a hammer to their laser pointers, and bury their Webcams? By all means, NO! Formal learning is needed in most organizations. What we must do is redefine ourselves as learning construction experts.

Traditional approaches to training are facing disruption. When I say “traditional,” I mean more than instructor-led training located in classrooms. I include e-Learning in most of the forms that have prevailed for the last 15 years or longer. Disruptive innovation, in the form of social software, is sparking new philosophies about formal and informal use of collaboration to support learning. But why are these ideas finding support among business leaders and e-Learning experts?

The basic reason is simple. Information moves too fast. The speed of commerce is faster than ever. Today, product releases happen every three months instead of every three years. Customers define your brand through online communities faster than you can think about creating a branding campaign. The pace at which workers must learn outstrips anything we have seen before. The influx of Millennials (gen Y), who will comprise 50% of our workforce in the next five years, brings with it new entry-level technology skills and new expectations. And that, in a few sentences, is your disruption.

From DSC:
This speed of information applies to higher ed as well. In fact, I wish my master’s program would drop the use of printed-based textbooks and use materials that are much more up-to-date and accessible via online-based methods; also I can search these online-based items in a much fast, easier manner.

Tagged with: collaboration • corporate training / universities • disruption • informal learning • social learning • training

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