I had the pleasure of attending last week’s Education Innovation Summit 2013 in Phoenix. Co-sponsored by Arizona State University (ASU) and GSV Advisors, this year’s event was the fourth and the largest by far. Because of my role in online education at American Public University System (APUS), I have been a member of the ASU/GSV advisory board and have attended all four conferences. Each year attendance has grown at an impressive rate with estimated figures of 200, 400, 800, and 1400 for each consecutive annual conference. … Read the rest
Tag Archives | Clayton Christensen
Pilot Program Forces Discussion of Online Learning, MOOCs, Student Retention, and the Future of Higher Education
Earlier this week, the California State University System (CSU) announced an online pilot program with Udacity, a for-profit provider of MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses). Udacity will provide a remedial algebra course, a college level algebra course, and a statistics course as part of the pilot that will initially be limited to 300 students at San Jose State University and several local community colleges. The cost of each course will be $150. Udacity will provide mentors to the students to answer their questions and encourage them to complete the assignments and stay enrolled in class. … Read the rest
Barriers to Adoption of Online Learning Systems in U.S. Higher Education
Ithaka S+R recently published a report funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and titled, “Barriers to Adoption of Online Learning Systems in U.S. Higher Education.” I have written extensively on this blog about the economic constraints facing institutions of higher education, issues of student persistence and retention, and the litany of other issues daunting the American higher education system today. In their report, the authors explore many of these same topics explaining why they believe online education could be a boon for higher education in general and students, faculty, and individual institutions specifically. … Read the rest
Alternative Certification – A Good Idea?
I have read three articles in the last three days about alternatives to earning a college degree, primarily through certification of one kind or another.
The first article, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, discusses the concept of “badges” that are awarded by various websites, training companies, individuals, etc. The concept is that the badge is relatively easy to earn (to keep the learner motivated and engaged) and indicates that they have achieved a certain skill level or learning competency. … Read the rest
Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities
Rich DeMillo has a lengthy background in academia serving as a professor at four different universities, Dean of Computing at Georgia Tech College of Computing, Director of the Computer and Computation Research Division of the National Science Foundation, and was Hewlett Packard’s first Chief Technology Officer. His latest book, Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities, developed from a five page memo that he planned to send to his colleagues about what was wrong at his university then evolved to a whitepaper in which he solicited the advice of friends and colleagues, and eventually to a book. … Read the rest
The Innovative University
When I read Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, I enjoyed Clayton Christensen and his co-authors’ application of the potential of disruptive innovations to the K-12 classroom. As a result, I looked forward to reading his new book, The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out. It didn’t disappoint me.
Christensen and his co-author, Henry J. Eyring, take a different tack in this book. Approximately 60-75 percent of the book provides a narrative of two institutions of higher education, Harvard University and Ricks College, now BYU-Idaho. … Read the rest
Disrupting College
In February, Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn, Louis Caldera, and Louis Soares published a research report entitled “Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary Education.” The report was sponsored by the Center for American Progress and Innosight Institute. Christensen is a Harvard Business School professor noted for his study of disruptive innovations that influence industries and a few years ago, he and his colleagues penned a book entitled Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns which I reviewed on my blog.… Read the rest
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum…
I spent two days last week in Honolulu attending and presenting at the 2011 Hawaii International Conference on Education. With me were Dr. Karan Powell, our Academic Dean and Dr. Phil Ice, our Director of Course Design, Development, and Metrics. The three of us co-presented on four different topics, Optimizing Faculty Workload and Learning Effectiveness in Distance Education; Semantic Mapping of Learning Assets; Comprehensive Assessment of Student Retention in Online Learning Environments; and Using Data to Assess Learning Effectiveness, Student Retention and Institutional Productivity in Online Programs.… Read the rest
- Why Private Schools are Dying Out
- Celebrating Innovation in Education at the 2013 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition
- College (Un)Bound by Jeffrey J. Selingo
- Nature and Needs of Higher Education
- Contagious: Why Things Catch On
- The “Myths” About Online Education
- Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns
- Charlene Li’s Groundswell
- Higher Ed’s Economic Challenges
- My Vote is For Apple
- WallyBoston.com | Education Innovation: Fad or Burgeoning Industry?: [...] the disrupters by utilizing the technology a...
- WallyBoston.com | Earth Day: [...] is Earth Day and it seems fitting to share a...
- Disruption in Higher Education | Wallace Boston: [...] written about MOOCs in the past (see “What...
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Juan Rosado: All, Dr. Delbanco is giving a webinar/class on th...
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