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Showing posts from July, 2012

Distance Learning and the University Death Spiral

Coursera, EdX, Kahn Academy, Saylor.org, OpenCourseWare. All are infinitely scalable, infinitely deployable, and infinitely cheaper alternatives to the bricks-and-mortar learning experience. How, where and who consumes a heretofore inelastic product - education - is being reshaped, unwrung, and disruptively transformed in ways not seen since the invention of the printing press. Today's world needs a highly educated, adaptable, technical workforce, capable of being retrained and redeployed from less productive to more productive industries. The prohibitively expensive (and slow!) 4-year residential education model is no longer suited to the modern, global economy. Thus it is this blogger's belief that we are about to witness the beginning of a Cat 5 university endgame: the emerging on-line learning colossus spawns a legitimate credentialing industry leading to collapsing tuition revenue from decreased enrollment, leading ultimately to many under-capitalized colleges and uni...