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Peter Baskerville
Wow. The questions looks simple enough to answer but at it's fundamental level it is asking a far more complex and far reaching question of how the innovative free and growing distribution of educational content will disrupt the current centuries old paradigm of the college education.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is a compelling case for this disruption given the skyrocketing costs of a college education, the inability of current models of college education to adapt quickly enough to meet the changing skill needs of the global information age worker, the inequity where 93% of the working aged people of the world do not have a college education due to cost and geographic constraints and the ivory-tower mentality of academics who supported by the bias political agendas of governments, have detached education outcomes from industry requirements.
Coursera, Udacity and Khan Academy are just some of the ventures at the pointy end of the spear who are being the trail-blazers for many more innovative entrepreneurial enterprises which are soliciting support from a growing list of venture capitalists who will lead the much anticipated revolution in college education. My view is that the stars are aligning in 2012, meaning that we will see some breakthrough traction examples of what the new college education paradigm will look like this year. We already have the standout example of what the Stanford University professor Sebastian Thrun did with his 160,000 enroled students in an online - "Introduction to AI course". http://chronicle.com/blogs/wired...
Looking at the educational aspects of a college education, the new paradigm will need to address the three key areas of (1) content (2) mastery (3) accreditation. Here are some thoughts on how the new paradigm might work with these three key elements.
As I see it, while universities have the monopolistic security of their research activities and K12 has it's role in establishing the foundations of core life skills, it's the college education that stands to be completely disrupted by the growing popularity of the online learning platforms like Coursera, Udacity and Khan Academy.
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Wow. The questions looks simple enough to answer but at it's fundamental level it is asking a far more complex and far reaching question of how the innovative free and growing distribution of educational content will disrupt the current centuries old paradigm of the college education.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is a compelling case for this disruption given the skyrocketing costs of a college education, the inability of current models of college education to adapt quickly enough to meet the changing skill needs of the global information age worker, the inequity where 93% of the working aged people of the world do not have a college education due to cost and geographic constraints and the ivory-tower mentality of academics who supported by the bias political agendas of governments, have detached education outcomes from industry requirements.
Coursera, Udacity and Khan Academy are just some of the ventures at the pointy end of the spear who are being the trail-blazers for many more innovative entrepreneurial enterprises which are soliciting support from a growing list of venture capitalists who will lead the much anticipated revolution in college education. My view is that the stars are aligning in 2012, meaning that we will see some breakthrough traction examples of what the new college education paradigm will look like this year. We already have the standout example of what the Stanford University professor Sebastian Thrun did with his 160,000 enroled students in an online - "Introduction to AI course". http://chronicle.com/blogs/wired...
Looking at the educational aspects of a college education, the new paradigm will need to address the three key areas of (1) content (2) mastery (3) accreditation. Here are some thoughts on how the new paradigm might work with these three key elements.
- Content - this will come from the sites previously mentioned and others that are currently being launched. The best teachers in the world on each contextualized topic will build a global resource that colleges the world over will draw upon. Current content will also be supplied by industry professors who will share their workplace knowledge and expertise. There won't be the need for each locally based college to develop their own content because the best content will be being collaboratively developed and updated in real-time by the best in the world.
- Mastery - this will be provided by a collaborative approach involving local tutors and student/teachers. The social collaborative learning model will still play a part in the new paradigm but with a local tutor/facilitator helping individual learners achieve their goals. The student/teacher model will blend into one where students who master a concept teach those who haven't and teachers who have mastered one area become students in a new or changing field. Mastery will be peer-to-peer with local tutors and recently 'graduated' students in the topic supporting the learning.
- Accreditation - this will involve assessment centers where students will have a choice of assessment they wish to undertake (Mozilla's Open Badges, online learning platform's certificate, university/college accredited awards or industry's accreditation). Students might want to be assessed by combination of the above and the new college paradigm will support and facilitate their wish. Accreditation will also be offered by industries who will require you to be assessed to their standard to be eligible to enter their workforce.
As I see it, while universities have the monopolistic security of their research activities and K12 has it's role in establishing the foundations of core life skills, it's the college education that stands to be completely disrupted by the growing popularity of the online learning platforms like Coursera, Udacity and Khan Academy.
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