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Reflections on “Synthesis, capabilities, & overlooked insights: Next frontiers for strategists” [Gluck, Jacobides, Simpson]

On 11/11/2014, in business, corporate / business world, future, leadership, strategy, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Synthesis, capabilities, and overlooked insights: Next frontiers for strategists — from mckinsey.com by Fred Gluck, Michael Jacobides, & Dan Simpson
The founder of McKinsey’s Strategy Practice, a London Business School professor, and a chief strategist turned professor describe pain points and possibilities for strategists on the leading edge.

Excerpts:

I think of strategic planning as the job of collecting and analyzing the enormous amounts of data that characterize the modern world and monitoring changes in markets and the competitive environment. This process, which requires frameworks and concepts, is where academics can contribute most in the way of ideas, and strategic-planning groups can add the most value. Strategic planning, defined in this way, provides the raw material and factual basis for strategic thinking and opportunistic decision making.
…
This is the essence of strategic thinking and strategic management: it’s where creativity is paramount and insights take place, and it’s not something that should be limited to an annual strategic-planning process.
…
Personally, I think this concern is overdone. The real danger is “gray rhinos”: while hard to miss in the zoo, they are surprisingly difficult to spot in the South African bush, obscured as they are by the vegetation. By the time they’re visible, they are already storming toward you, leaving little chance to react. As academics, our job is to help managers tune into the rustling leaves or cracking twigs of an approaching challenge—or opportunity—before it’s upon them. To do that, we must focus on the parts of the environment that matter most and make sure the tools we carry are fit for the purpose.
…
In all of these areas, what really excites me is the prospect of a stronger link between practitioners and academics, so we can leverage the research we’ve done and shape the research we need to do. Together, we can simplify reality without distorting it and uncover the social laws that we don’t yet understand but shape our world.
…
What, in retrospect, is ascribed to poor execution instead has its roots in an unexpectedly large gap between a company’s capabilities and the ones needed to deliver the strategy successfully.

 

From DSC:
In reading the above article, I couldn’t help but think of some of the similarities between futurism/futures studies and strategic planning/thinking.  To me, they both involve — at least in part — some pulse checking. Pulse checking various landscapes.  Looking out to see what’s coming down the pike, and if those developments might be useful to one’s organization.  Helping others hear “the rustling leaves or cracking twigs of an approaching challenge—or opportunity—before it’s upon them.”  I try to do this for higher education.  But the windows of opportunity don’t stay open forever.  Vision and action are required.

Also, I appreciated McKinsey’s work here because they are open to — and trying to — better integrate the work of academics with the business world; they shouldn’t be separate in my mind.

 

Also see:

 

 

 

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Reflections on “The University of Texas System makes bold move into competency-based education”

On 11/10/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, change, changing business models, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, experimentation, higher education, innovation, mobile learning, new business models, personalized/customized learning, real-world assignments, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, United States, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

The University of Texas System makes bold move into competency-based education — from utsystem.edu

 Excerpt:

AUSTIN – The University of Texas System will be the first in the nation to launch a personalized, competency-based education program system-wide aimed at learners from high school through post-graduate studies.

What sets the UT System approach apart from other competency-based programs is a focus on offering personalized and adaptive degrees and certificates that are industry-aligned and – via technology developed by the UT System – can systematically improve success, access and completion rates in areas of high employment demand.

“Competency-based programs allow students to advance through courses, certifications and degrees based on their ability to master knowledge and skills rather than time spent in a classroom,” said Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. “All students are held to clearly defined and rigorous expectations, but each follows a customized path to success that responds and adapts based on individual learning strengths, challenges and goals. And students can earn credit for prior learning and move at their own speed.”

…

To support and power its new competency-based educational pathway, the UT System is working with education technology innovators to create a state-of-the-art, “mobile-first” stack of technologies and services called TEx, which stands for Total Educational Experience.

 

.

From DSC:
First of all, I noted an interesting — and much needed within higher ed — title/position:  The chief innovation officer for the Institute of Transformational Learning.

Let’s break that one down a second.

In 20102, The University of Texas’ Board of Regents had a vision that learning needs to be transformed and they created an institute for it — supplying $50 million to support some key mandates:

  • To make a University of Texas-quality education more accessible and affordable.
  • To improve student learning outcomes and dramatically increase the number of Texans with a college degree and other advanced educational credentials.

So not only did this board show vision, but also boldness — they put their $$ where they mouth was to support their vision.  Innovation was key to this institute, so they created a CIO position, whereby the I stood for Innovation, not Information.

Surely, the level of willingness to experiment in the U of Texas system runs higher than at many other institutions of higher education.  So I congratulate them on their culture to be willing to experiment…to adapt…to change. If successful, such programs should help more people obtain the degrees they need to make a living, make a life, make a contribution.*

 

* A great slogan from Davenport University

Also see:

Excerpt:

LMS for Competency Based Education
Readers may not be too interested in reading about Learning Management System news; often LMSs are considered a necessary evil to faculty and teachers of education institutions. However, news last week shared by Phil Hill over at e-literate  is worthy of attention—the launch of a LMS platform geared to  competency based education (CBE) programs. The new LMS launched by Helix has a different approach than traditional LMS providers.  It’s not catering to an institution, but to a method of teaching and learning—CBE.  Interesting.

Insight: There is, and continues to be an emphasis and support ($$$) for creation of CBE programs by the Department of Education (Fain, 2014). This new LMS approach by Helix is another indicator. I predict that we’ll be hearing a lot more about CBE in the next few months with more institutions offering CBE options for students.  Why it’s significant, is because CBE is a radical departure from traditional education; it does not rely upon the credit-hour or ‘seat time’ as its often referred to, but upon mastery of units of instruction.

comp_assessment_examples

Several institutions are already basing their model on CBE, College for America, an offshoot of Southern New Hampshire University and Capella University for instance. Purdue University is planning on offering a competency-based degree in the near future. Other universities that incorporate CBE principles—Western Governors University and Kentucky Community and Technical College System for its 2-year degree program.

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Impacts of MOOCs on Higher Education [Dulin Salisbury]

On 10/23/2014, in business side of he, change, changing business models, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, new business models, organizational change, pedagogy, strategy, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian
Impacts of MOOCs on Higher Education — from insidehighered.com by Allison Dulin Salisbury

Excerpt:

An international group of higher education institutions—including UT Arlington, Stanford University, Hong Kong University and Davidson College—convened by learning researcher and theorist George Siemens gathered last week to explore the impacts of MOOCs on higher education (full list of participating institutions below).

The takeaway? Higher education is going digital, responding to the architecture of knowledge in a digital age, and MOOCs, while heavily criticized, have proven a much-needed catalyst for the development of progressive programs that respond to the changing world.

After sharing challenges, key innovations and general impacts, we were collectively awed by our similarities. Sure, Harvard and Stanford have larger budgets and teams, and the Texas system is, well, a system, while Davidson College enrolls a little under 2,000 students; yet, these fundamentally different institutions voiced similar challenges in their transitions to digital environments.

During a wide-ranging, engaging conversation, participants focused on themes that have to do with organizational change, the state of higher education, and what it is we want our purpose to be—collectively—over the coming years.

Here are a few of the effects MOOCs have had on our colleges or universities:

 

From DSC:
Thanks George for your continued work and assistance in helping higher education adapt, change, and improve our outcomes (as well as adding your expertise towards teaching and learning, tools, and/or pedagogies).

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Two postings re: the unbundling and rebundling of higher education [Horn, Siemens]

On 09/12/2014, in change, changing business models, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, leadership, MBA, new business models, strategy, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Ed-Tech advances poised to revolutionize higher ed from all angles — from evolllution.com by Michael Horn

Excerpt:

There’s a flip side to unbundling, however, that receives far less attention. As a service’s architecture becomes modular, its performance becomes determined by the raw performance of its subcomponents, which consequently become interdependent — or re-bundled — as the entities making these subcomponents need to wring every ounce of performance out of them. In other words, as one stage becomes modular, an adjacent stage becomes interdependent.

In education, as elements such as content become unbundled, there will exist a need for subcomponents that bundle together — coaching, mentoring, communities, personal learning plans and employer connections, for example, as these areas are critical for student success, but the ways in which they fit together are not yet well enough understood such that there can be clear standards at their various interfaces. Standalone, modular solutions in these areas will struggle to succeed. Creating standards at their interfaces before we know what the standards should be will similarly suffer.
..
Similarly, too few are thinking about how to help students make sense of and navigate this emerging, unbundled world and integrate the modular pieces together in ways that help them carve out a coherent and sensible life path. This is critical because it appears that in a personalized learning future, every single learner will have a custom-fit educational pathway.

 

Bundling and Re-bundling — from elearnspace.com by George Siemens

Excerpt:

There are a few things wrong with the idea of unbundling in education:

1. Unbundling is different in social systems than it is in a content only system. An album can be unbundled without much loss. Sure, albums like The Wall don’t unbundle well, but those are exceptions. Unbundling a social system has ripple effects that cannot always be anticipated. The parts of a social system are less than the whole of a social system. Unbundling, while possible in higher education, is not a zero sum game. The pieces on the board that get rearranged will have a real impact on learners, society, and universities.

2. When unbundling happens, it is only temporary. Unbundling leads to rebundling. And digital rebundling results in less players and less competition. What unbundling represents then is a power shift. Universities are today an integrated network of products and services. Many universities have started to work with partners like Pearson (ASU is among the most prominent) to expand capacity that is not evident in their existing system.
.
Rebundling is what happens when the pieces that are created as a sector moves online become reintegrated into a new network model. It is most fundamentally a power shift. The current integrated higher education system is being pulled apart by a range of companies and startups. Currently the university is in the drivers seat. Eventually, the unbundled pieces will be integrated into a new network model that has a new power structure. For entrepreneurs, the goal appears to be to become part of a small number of big winners like Netflix or Google. When Sebastian Thrun stated that Udacity would be one of only 10 universities in the future, he was exhibiting the mentality that has existed in other sectors that have unbundled. Unbundling is not the real story: the real issue is the rebundling and how power structures are re-architected. Going forward, rebundling will remove the university from the drivers seat and place the control into the re-integrated networks.

 

 

————

Addendums:

 

 

unbundledMBA-CNBC-Sept2014

 

Addendum on 9/17/14:
Ed tech’s next wave rolls into view — from by Roger Novak

Excerpt:

If the second wave was about the unbundling of colleges and providing learning as a service, the third wave of companies will be involved in reassembling educational component pieces from various sources to help make students’ learning portfolios more meaningful to both individuals and employers. While we are starting to see colleges taking similar steps to become more student-centered, private-sector companies can act nimbly to fill gaps and create new technologies to help accomplish these goals.

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What if things move *significantly* towards “Show me what you can *do*”…?

On 09/09/2014, in 21st century, business side of he, career development, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, heutagogy, higher education, innovation, new business models, pace of change, real-world assignments, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, trends, universities, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
First of all, let me say that I’m a big fan and supporter of a liberal arts education — my degree was in economics (from Northwestern University’s College of Arts & Sciences, as the school was called at the time) and I currently work at a Christian liberal arts college. 

That said, within the current higher education landscape, we’re already seeing and hearing more and more about competency-based education, credits for prior learning, and other forms of obtaining a credential in less time.  I don’t have data on this, but my mental picture of these things is that such initiatives have had a limited impact, at least so far. 

However, as the pace of change has increased, I wonder…what if hiring decisions move significantly more towards “Show me what you can DO…?  That’s already taking place to a significant degree in many hiring situations, but my reflection revolves around questions such as:

  • What if it takes too long to wait for someone to get a 2 or 4-year degree? Will employers start looking more towards what competencies someone has today or can acquire much more quickly? 
  • Will people look outside of traditional higher education to get those skills?

Again, these reflections involve the increasing pace of change.

The pace has changed significantly and quickly

 

Anyway, such a shift could open doors for new “providers” such as:  

 

LessonsGoWhere

 

 

ClassDo

 

iUniv-August2014

 

 

udemy

 

Then, consider some quotes from the following article, Tottering Ivory Towers:

 

TotteringTowers-August112014

Excerpts:

…there is growing interest in new ways of measuring the quality of a degree. The variety of scorecards now available, for instance, means students and their parents have much better and more granular measures of quality than accreditation provides. For another, employers are gradually making greater use of independent, competency-based measures and credentialed courses rather than relying on accredited degrees and credit hours (derided as “seat time” by its critics). Try getting a job in computer network management if you can’t show which Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer courses you have passed. Meanwhile, Udacity is partnering with Google, AT&T, and other technology firms in an “Open Education Alliance” to provide top-level technical skills. Nevertheless, when it comes to alternatives to accreditation, the United States is generally playing catch-up with some other countries. In Britain, for instance, students can earn employer-union certified City & Guilds qualifications while studying at almost any institution, and there are standard competency measures in a variety of professional fields.

…

In a New York Times interview, Google’s senior vice president for people operations, Laszlo Bock, admitted that transcripts, test scores, and even degrees are less useful than other data as predictors of employee success.3 In this environment, an industry-led move to create a more dependable measure of knowledge and ability than a transcript will become increasingly attractive.

…

The critical lesson from the transformation of other industries is that it is likely to be a disastrous mistake to assume you can just tweak an existing business model and be all right. That can work only for a while.

 

Dmitry Sheynin writes in his article, Is innovation outpacing education? “With the ever-increasing pace of innovation, traditional colleges and universities are failing to train and retrain workers quickly enough. The model of two and four-year degrees, [futurist Thomas Frey] says, is largely incompatible with an industry that gets flipped on its head every couple of quarters.”  Again, according to Frey, “The main factor driving change in the labor force is new innovations rendering old jobs obsolete, but no mechanism is in place yet to help workers grow at the pace of evolving technology.”

Self-directed learning, or heutagogy, is key in this fast-paced environment. We all need to be constantly learning, growing, and reinventing ourselves.  However, not everyone is comfortable with such an approach.  So there are some gaps/opportunities opening up for those organizations who are innovative enough to experiment and to change.

 

Also see:

 

Addendum on 9/17/14:

Excerpt:

Argosy University System is among the first institutions in a movement toward competency-based education, creating new models of direct assessment that promise to reduce time-to-degree and offer greater relevance for graduates in the job market. CT talked with Argosy University System’s vice chancellor for academic affairs to learn how that institution tackled competency-based education — creating the first WASC-accredited MBA in its region based on a direct assessment, competency model. Now, Argosy is developing hybrid approaches that combine direct assessment with traditional seat time-based courses.

Addendum on 10/2/14:

 

Addendum on 10/8/14:

 

Addendum on 10/13/14:

.

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A room where executives go to get help from IBM’s Watson [Simonite; MIT Technology Review]

On 08/06/2014, in business, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, research, strategy, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

WatsonInBoardRoomMeetingsMIT-Aug2014

 

Excerpt:

First, Watson was brought up to speed by being directed, verbally, to read over an internal memo summarizing the company’s strategy for artificial intelligence. It was then asked by one of the researchers to use that knowledge to generate a long list of candidate companies. “Watson, show me companies between $15 million and $60 million in revenue relevant to that strategy,” he said.

After the humans in the room talked over the results Watson displayed on screen, they called out a shorter list for Watson to put in a table with columns for key characteristics. After mulling some more, one of them said: “Watson, make a suggestion.” The system ran a set of decision-making algorithms and bluntly delivered its verdict: “I recommend eliminating Kawasaki Robotics.” When Watson was asked to explain, it simply added. “It is inferior to Cognilytics in every way.”

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100 great questions every entrepreneur should ask [Buchanan]

On 08/05/2014, in business, business side of he, entrepreneurship, leadership, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, by Daniel Christian

100QuestionsEntrepreneur-April2014

 

From DSC:
Is there something here for institutions of higher education?

Examples:

  1. How can we become the company that would put us out of business? –Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group 
  2. Are we  relevant? Will we be relevant five years from now? Ten? –Debra Kaye, innovation consultant and author
  3. If I had to leave my organization for a year and the only communication I could have with employees was a single paragraph, what would I write? –Pat Lencioni, author and founder of The Table Group
    Lencioni explains, “Determining the substance of this paragraph forces you to identify the company’s core values and strategies, and the roles and responsibilities of those hypothetically left behind.”

 

 

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Does this phenomenon of how ecosystems will compete in the future also apply to educationally-related products/services?

On 06/25/2014, in Amazon, Apple, business, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, future, game-changing environment, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, Microsoft, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, platforms, programming, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, strategy, streams of content, student-related, tablets, technologies for your home, technology (general), trends, ubiquitous learning, by Daniel Christian

Mobile Megatrends 2014…uncovering major mobile trends in 2014 — from visionmobile.com

Excerpt:

This report examines five major trends that we expect to shape the future of mobile in the coming years:

  1. Apps: The Tip of the Iceberg
  2. Mobile Ecosystems: Don’t Come Late to the Game
  3. OTT Squared: Messaging Apps are the new Platforms
  4. Handset Business Reboot: Hardware is the new Distribution
  5. The Future of HTML5: Beyond the Browser

 

From DSC:
In looking at the below excerpted slide from this solid presentation, I have to ask…

“Does this same phenomenon also apply to educationally-related products/services?”

…

Yes, I think it does.

That is, the educationally-related products and services of an organization will compete not by size, but how well the experience roams across screens.  Lifelong learners (who are using well-designed learning experiences) will be able to tap into streams of content on multiple devices and never skip a beat.  The organizations who provide such solid learning experiences across multiple “channels” should do well in the future.  This is due to:

  • The affordances of cloud-based computing
  • The increasing power of mobile computing
  • The convergence of the television, the telephone, and the computer — which is opening up the door for powerful, interactive, multi-directional communications that involve smart/connected televisions
  • Generation Z’s extensive use of screens*

 

 

 

HowEcosystemsWillCompete-VisionMobile-June2014

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

* From Here Comes Generation Z — bloombergview.com by Leonid Bershidsky

If Y-ers were the perfectly connected generation, Z-ers are overconnected. They multi-task across five screens: TV, phone, laptop, desktop and either a tablet or some handheld gaming device, spending 41 percent of their time outside of school with computers of some kind or another, compared to 22 percent 10 years ago.

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The Futurist Forum at Co. Exist including “5 Bold Predictions for the Future of Higher Education”

On 06/12/2014, in future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, strategy, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

The Futurist Forum at Co. Exist — from fastcoexist.com; with thanks to Gerd Leonhard (@gleonhard) for putting this out there on Twitter.
A series of articles by some of the world’s leading futurists about what the world will look like in the near and distant future, and how you can improve how you navigate future scenarios through better forecasting.

 

FuturistForumFastCoExist-June2014

 

 

One excerpted item from that forum regards potential scenarios for higher education:

5BoldPredictionsHE-April2014

 

 

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Can disruption save higher education? [Stansbury]

On 06/10/2014, in change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, leadership, new business models, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, trends, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

CanDisruptionSaveHigherEducation-June2014

 

Can disruption save higher education? — from eCampus News by Meris Stansbury

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Christensen: “The question now is: ‘Is there something that can’t be displaced within a traditional university’s value offering?'”

…

However, Christensen outlined three ways traditional colleges and universities, like his own Harvard Business school, could survive into the future:

Focus on professors
[when recruiting faculty]…focus less on their publishing capabilities and expert knowledge of material, and more on their ability to connect to others.

Understand why technology, like online learning, is disruptive.

Don’t try to change from the inside — you will fail.  [Use offsets.]

 

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Internet Trends 2014 — Mary Meeker [KPCB]

On 05/29/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, analytics, Apple, Asia, business, Canada, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, convergence, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, data related items, disruption, emerging technologies, Europe, global / globalization, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, innovation, interactivity, internet, marketing/social marketing, marketplaces, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, pace of change, platforms, smart/connected TV, social media, society, strategy, streams of content, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, television, trends, UK, United States, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

MaryMeekerInternetTrendsMay2014

 

Example slides:

MaryMeekerInternetTrendsMay2014-22

 

MaryMeekerInternetTrendsMay2014-3

 

 

MaryMeekerInternetTrendsMay2014-5

 

MaryMeekerInternetTrendsMay2014-6

 

 

MaryMeekerInternetTrendsMay2014-11

 
MaryMeekerInternetTrendsMay2014-13

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Reflections on “Strategic principles for competing in the digital age” [Hirt & Willmott]

On 05/19/2014, in corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, global / globalization, strategy, UK, United States, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Strategic principles for competing in the digital age — from mckinsey.com by Martin Hirt and Paul Willmott
Digitization is rewriting the rules of competition, with incumbent companies most at risk of being left behind. Here are six critical decisions CEOs must make to address the strategic challenge posed by the digital revolution.

Excerpts:

Today’s challenge is different. Robust attackers are scaling up with incredible speed, inserting themselves artfully between you and your customers and zeroing in on lucrative value-chain segments.

The digital technologies underlying these competitive thrusts may not be new, but they are being used to new effect.

…

As these technologies gain momentum, they are profoundly changing the strategic context: altering the structure of competition, the conduct of business, and, ultimately, performance across industries.

 

 

Also see:

Digital strategy — from mckinsey.com by Paul Willmott
Digitization is fundamentally altering the nature of competition. McKinsey’s Paul Willmott explains how digital winners think and what companies can do to compete.

Excerpt:

Digital is fundamentally shifting the competitive landscape in many sectors. It allows new entrants to come from unexpected places. We’re seeing banks get into the travel business in some countries. We’re seeing travel agents get into the insurance business. We’re seeing retailers go into the media business. So your competitor set is not what it used to be.

One thing that digital allows is what I call “plug and play dynamics”—meaning that companies can attack specific areas of the value chain rather than having to own the whole thing. This is because digital allows different services to be stitched together more quickly and cheaply.

 

From DSC:
The above two items made me wonder:

  • Do these principles apply to the corporate world only?
  • Or might they also apply to the world of higher education?
  • Are digital startups going to come between established colleges and universities and their normal “pipelines” of students?

Assuming that such startups can create quality alternatives at far less expensive prices, I would say the answer to that is “yes, at least a significant amount of the time.”  The word cannibalize was used in the “Strategic principles…” article, and again, I can’t help but think of Steve Jobs’ philosophy of cannibalizing one’s own company before someone else does it for you.  I also can’t help but reflect that Apple is the worlds’ largest/most valuable company based on market cap. 

There is danger in the status quo — especially if the status quo means taking no action whatsoever.

 

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.

— Coach John Wooden

 

 

 

Also see:

  • The $10,000 Bachelor’s Degree — from U.S. Chamber of Commerce
    Excerpt:
    Starting this fall, Southern New Hampshire University will offer a bachelor’s degree for $10,000.What makes this online program unique is that it is ‘competency-based’ as opposed to the credit-based system that the majority of colleges offer. So, instead of earning credit hours towards degree completion, students will be tested on how well they know the subject matter. Once a student passes the assessment, he or she can move on to the next competency.
    .
  • The $10,000 degree: Fundamentally changing the way universities do business — from evolllution.com by Jean Floten | Chancellor, Western Governors University Washington
    .
  • Whither higher education? To the opera! — by Allison Rossett
    Excerpt:
    Higher education and opera face threats and opportunities in cultures deep with pomp, brilliance, ego, passion, longing, losses, greed, and alliances. For higher education there is an infusion of new blood, with educational technology firms attracting 1.25 billion dollars in funding in 2013, according to CB Insights. The interest continues into 2014. While the investment numbers for opera are small, some communities are stepping up, as San Diego is now, providing funding while asking for reinvention.Reinvention? How will higher education and opera respond? The answer is that some will, and some won’t. I’m hoping that our opera and universities will step forward with bold strategic changes, measured results, and commitment to continuous improvement. Either they will do that, or I’m pretty sure that something will do it to them.
  • Five trends to watch in higher education — from The Boston Consulting Group
    Excerpt:

    • Revenue from key sources is continuing to fall, putting many institutions at severe financial risk.
    • Demands are rising for a greater return on investment in higher education.
    • Greater transparency about student outcomes is becoming the norm.
    • New business and delivery models are gaining traction.
    • The globalization of education is accelerating.
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If change is inevitable– is progress optional? Four education institutions opting for progress [Morrison]

On 04/17/2014, in business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, leadership, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, strategy, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

If change is inevitable– is progress optional? Four education institutions opting for progress — from onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com by Debbie Morrison

Excerpts:

  1. Corporate Sponsored Degree Program: University of Maryland, Cybersecurity
  2. Strategic Planning Initiative: Beyond Forward, Dartmouth University
  3. Institutional Mergers. University System of Georgia
  4. MOOC-Inspired Initiatives. Penn State, flex-MOOC and Georgia Tech Institute.

 

 

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7 items re: Learning Ecosystems, most from Ecosystem 2014 [The eLearning Guild]

On 03/22/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, love of learning, strategy, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Several items have recently been written concerning learning ecosystems, prompted in large part by the Ecosystem 2014 Conference.

 

Ecosystem2014ElearningGuild-March2014

 

Ecosystem 2014 – General Impressions — from in-the-middle-of-the-curve.blogspot.com by Wendy Wickham

Excerpt:

Because a Learning Ecosystem is an evolving thing. Like a forest or any other organic system.
This is NOT a “build once, maintain for eternity” thing.

 

The Ever-Changing Ecosystem — from in-the-middle-of-the-curve.blogspot.com by Wendy Wickham

Excerpt:

Brian Chapman led an introductory talk with his views on Learning Ecosystems and what they are.

…

What Brian hinted at, yet what jumped out at me when he showed Xerox’s Learning Ecosystem example, was that the Learning Ecosystem can (and should) encompass ALL of the tools of the workplace where people collaborate, find information, communicate.

…

This assumption that trainers need a “special” environment is where folks are going wrong.
This is why I have been hearing so much noise about LMSs and Talent Management Systems being “the ecosystem.’  No no no no no….

They are a part.  And a small part.

 

On Ecosystems and Learning Strategy — from learningjournal.wordpress.com by Catherine Lombardozzi

Excerpt:

The eLearning Guild is hosting an important series of conversations this week at Ecosystem 2014. Learning solutions have been expanding way beyond traditional L&D outputs for years now, and learning professionals are working to figure out the best ways to strategize more robust recommendations that include performance support, informal learning, social learning, experiential learning, developmental programs and more. These strategies present a variety of challenges in terms of design, curation, and technology, and many of us are working on how to best bring everything together in support of performance and capability development.

…

Learning Ecosystem Defined
I appreciate that several of the speakers seem to converge on a definition of a learning ecosystem (or performance ecosystem) as a combination of people, content, process, and technology to enable learning.  I also agree that a metaphor that suggests life and growth is important – we “grow” an ecosystem (more organic), we don’t “build” it (suggests something more technical).

 

#LSCon day 1, Leapfrogging serious lean agile innovation performance ecosystems for 90% — from kasperspiro.com by Kasper Spiro

Excerpt:

Ecosystem
This year there is a second conference next to Learning solutions: Ecosystems 2014. It is more on a strategic level. You have to have a special upgrade in order to attend the sessions, build the guild was kind enough to allow me to party crash a session. The session I attended was about ecosystems and  was presented by Lance Dublin. For him the term ecosystem was also new, so he took us on a journey to discover it with him. I got from it that an ecosystem is a living and ever changing thing that enables and facilitates learning. It should contain four elements: Process, people, Technology and content. So it is not an architecture (that is part of the ecosystem) but the whole thing. The reason we have to thing about this is the increasing speed of things, our old ways (LMS learning with courses) do not work anymore. We need something that delivers Performance at the speed of need. He gave s an impressive list of opportunities/changes, developments that should be part of an ecosystem: Mobile, Moocs, Cloud, social learning, serious games, Big data, personalization and much more. He also defined the goal of an ecosystem: Performance.

 

My recap of day 2 at #LSCon Big data, tools and the learning eco system — from by Kasper Spiro 

Excerpt:

Learning performance analysis. Aligning the eco system with the business.

…

They had a lot more on the ecosystem, but I will keep that for later.  I will end this session description with: You have to cultivate dynamic learners that can learn at the speed of change. Love that.

 

 

 

Additional thoughts from DSC:
When I was looking to create some graphics for this Learning Ecosystems blog, I was searching for a graphic that attempted to illustrate interconnecting nodes.  In my interpretation of a learning ecosystem, such nodes could be people, experiences, content, tools, processes, and other items that help us to learn and grow. I wanted the graphic to speak to something that was living…ever changing.  So I used this:

 

learning-ecosystems-nodes-DanielChristian

 

But here’s another example of a potential graphic that I just ran across and modified a bit (per an item from Gerd Leonhard):

 

DChristian-PotentialGraphic3PeoplesEcosystems-March2014

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*Major* questions need to be asked — and addressed — due to these shifts [Christian]

On 03/17/2014, in 21st century, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, business, career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engineering, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, informal learning, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, marketplaces, new business models, pace of change, professional development, reinvent, robotics, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, the downsides of how people use tech, training / L&D, trends, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian
RiseofTheReplicants-FTdotcomMarch2014

 

Excerpts:

If Daniel Nadler is right, a generation of college graduates with well-paid positions as junior researchers and analysts in the banking industry should be worried about their jobs. Very worried.

Mr Nadler’s start-up, staffed with ex-Google engineers and backed partly by money from Google’s venture capital arm, is trying to put them out of work.

…

The threat to jobs stretches beyond the white-collar world. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) also make possible more versatile robots capable of taking over many types of manual work. “It’s going to decimate jobs at the low end,” predicts Jerry Kaplan, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who teaches a class about AI at Stanford University. Like others working in the field, he says he is surprised by the speed at which the new technologies are moving out of the research labs.

 

From DSC:
After reading the above article — and seeing presentations about these trends (example) — I have some major questions to ask:

  • What changes do those of us working within higher education need to make due to these shifts? How should we modify our curricula? Which skills need to be reinforced/developed?
  • What changes do Learning & Development groups and Training Departments need to make within the corporate world?
  • How should we be developing our K-12 students to deal with such a volatile workplace?
  • What changes do adult learners need to make to stay marketable/employable? How can they reinvent themselves (and know what that reinvention should look like)?
  • How can each of us know if our job is next on the chopping block and if it is, what should we do about it?
  • What kind of future do we want?

These changes are for real. The work of Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee further addresses some of these trends and changes. See:

 

TheSecondMachineAge-2014

 

 

 

 

Addendum:

AICouldAutomateJobsChicagoTrib-March52014

 

 

 

Also see:

 

Bill Gates Interview Robots

 

Excerpt:

Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates isn’t going to sugarcoat things: The increasing power of automation technology is going to put a lot of people out of work. Business Insider reports that Gates gave a talk at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, DC this week and said that both governments and businesses need to start preparing for a future where lots of people will be put out of work by software and robots.

 

Also see:

 

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