(keynote delivered at the Distance Learning Administration Conference on June 5, 2013)
I began writing this speech nearly three months ago. A week and a half ago, I wrapped it up and thought I had better run through it one last time in case any new educational technology had been released that I needed to discuss today.
As an alumnus of the doctoral program in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (GSE), I attended Penn GSE’s recent conference entitled “Innovation in an Era of Disruptive Change.” Conference attendees and alums of the grad school heard Dr. Jack Wilson, President Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts, discuss his topic “Evolution or Revolution: Everyone Wants Universities to Change but Exactly How is Not so Clear.”
You can’t read a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed without seeing an article discussing the disruption that technology or MOOCs (Massively Open Online Course) are having or will have on the higher education sector. Because of the publicity, I receive questions from colleagues at conferences and other events asking me for my opinion about the potential for higher education disruption, the roadmap that it will take, and who will survive.
I was a panel participant at a conference last Thursday in Washington, DC. The conference was sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute and was called Stretching the Higher Education Dollar. The five panels that were convened included: The Case for Reform, Opportunities and Obstacles at Existing Institutions, Unbundling College Degrees in Theory and Practice, College in Pieces: Cost Effective Approaches to Student Services and Credentialing, and Implications for State and Federal Policy.
