Big changes coming for K-12 Education, however the article makes some assumptions that younger students have the discipline to learn at their own pace.  I have not seen this to necessarily be the case in Higher Ed. 

There also seems to be a push to use online learning as a default remediation tool for those falling behind in a traditional classroom.  Again, I do not believe this is always the right fit, as people fall behind for many different reasons and distancing them from a set structure may not be the answer.  Is there a way to build in an evaluation layer that will match failing students with the most correct remediation tool for the individual?

infoneer-pulse:

The adoption of online learning is much more than just a cost-saving move for school districts. It has the potential to transform schooling more broadly by allowing students access to a wide range of high-quality offerings and teachers, regardless of where they live. Some students whose classroom courses have been replaced with online versions will be thrilled to find out that they now have access to not just one provider’s online courses but a whole marketplace of high-quality options, in a naturally technology-rich environment quite compatible for them.

» via Forbes

If colleges want to make a mixture of online and face-to-face classes work on a traditional campus, they will need to do more than simply offer students the option of showing up in person, or offering “lightning round” quizzes to prevent cheating.  These things represent the bare minimum and really only work to serve the University and their interests, as opposed to the paying student.

The bottom line is that Universities have to take the lead in determining how best to use the hybrid model and then they need to educate students how to use it to their full advantage.

First, instructors and course designers need to define what they are trying to accomplish in the different spaces.  It is already understood that people learn in different ways and it is important that this new type of hybrid course better define what benefits come with sitting on your laptop at home (or even in the actual class) verses being there in person with a traditional pad and paper.  Is the instructor using a smart blackboard, and saving his notes live?  Does the instructor have links and other supplemental materials that he/she will encourage students to draw on during the session?  What are the benefits to using a computer in this class other than sitting in your pajamas to do it?  (By the way, many college students will wear their pajamas to class regardless of where the class is located.)

Not only should courses like these be more up front about what the class has to offer, it is also the responsibility of the University to help connect the dots so students can optimize their experience.  Do students know their own learning styles?  Are Universities providing basic assessments to help students figure this out and then showing them what type of classroom environment and tools will help them take advantage of it?  

The truth is that it is a myth to assume that students know what to do in an online class, simply because they come from a generation where computers are mostly common place.  Not all younger people have the same access to computers and there is a difference in how people use computers for entertainment verses for learning.  One can argue that the lines are blurring here, but it doesn’t mean that a student who likes to chat online with their friends and watch You Tube videos, is going to have the out of the box skills to communicate in an online conference or know how to find other classroom resources.  Schools that are committed to the reality that Online and Hybrid courses will be a growing part of their college environment need to be proactive about making this a quality experience. 

In addition, what can the school do to help the instructor?  How many institutions are using Teaching Assistants to moderate the online spaces during the class?  Online students need to feel the immediacy that comes with timely feedback and recognition in order for them to feel like they are part of the classroom experience.  These spaces need cultivation and it is unfair to ask an instructor to have to manage this on their own simultaneously online and face to face.

Obviously, these are all big issues and there are many sensitivity to navigate as Universities look for the right mixture of educational and financial success.  Doing this will take time, but institutions must no lose sight of the fact that students are not choosing their traditional campuses for either the social element or the educational value in some kind of vacuum.  Schools must continue to keep this balance in order to succeed. 

This may delight undergraduates who do not have to change out of pajamas to “attend” class. But it also raises questions that go to the core of a college’s mission: Is it possible to learn as much when your professor is a mass of pixels whom you never meet? How much of a student’s education and growth — academic and personal — depends on face-to-face contact with instructors and fellow students?

We are at an important crossroads in online education.  Recently, Harvard and MIT, through their joint venture, edX, have joined the likes of Princeton, Stanford, UPenn, and the University of Michigan by offering free to low-cost online education to the masses.

Why is this important?  It is important because it signals that some of the best institutions are serious about online learning. More significantly, these institutions recognize that there is a difference between how they treat their educational content, which they are now willing to freely share, and how they treat the very expensive campus-based experiences that they offer to students who seek and are granted admission each year.

It is important to understand that these institutions are not devaluing their products by sharing this content.  On one hand, they are helping to raise the bar for what online education should be by embracing transparency in their methodology.  Many organizations, including the Maryland Distance Learning Association (MDLA), among others, have been hard at work at this cause for years, all with the hope that this will result in a deeper pool of talent for institutions from which to learn. 

However, it is also important to think about where these institutions believe the added value (i.e., profit) will come as they decouple the education they provide from the on-campus student experience.  Although the luster has come off of higher education in the past several years as students find it harder and harder to find post-college employment, this is not necessarily the case at higher-end institutions across the country.  These schools are not seeing a lack of demand, because students are willing to pay the high cost for the benefits and connections that come from such a learning environment.  With this in mind, if an institution knows that their revenue stream is secure, they are more likely to spin off their content for a myriad of purposes, both altruistic and monetary.

Let’s think for a minute about what costs are involved in providing an online course.  From a very high level, these would include the cost of course development, the cost of hosting classes on some type of platform, as well as the cost of instruction (i.e., faculty).  For many institutions, these costs are prohibitive.  As many in higher education already know, it is easier to get funding to build something tangible, like a building, than it is to get funding for extra servers to support a cache of new course sections. 

However, now that some big players are beginning to pool their resources in order to mitigate the cost of hosting and creating content, where does this leave everyone else?  Interest in online learning continues to grow, and for many institutions it is now considered a necessity.  What is not clear on many campuses is the best way to implement these fledgling programs.  Those that go it alone can expect a hard road ahead as they shoulder all of the costs involved.  The only way to keep up with the rising costs of maintaining a distance education program is by continuing to grow, which has its own hazards.  What obligations will be required of those who align themselves with these major players and join these new consortiums?  It is at this point that many will learn the true cost of these “free” classes.

For institutions that already have the infrastructure and resources, such as edX, the logical next is step to begin leasing their content and platform to schools looking to get into online education.  Although the new company has not indicated that they will take this route, it may become an appealing possibility.  By relying on an economy of scale that comes with using a standard core of classes and robust servers to house the classes themselves, Universities that have the capital stand to make a large profit from this business if they so choose.

Again, this raises some major questions going forward. Although there will always be a level of value in having a University degree, how will the average student react when they see two online courses on the same subject sitting side by side—one of which they are paying a significant sum of money to attend and the other a free course taught by some of the most highly regarded Universities in the world?  This is not to suggest that students will all arbitrarily abandon college and begin to self-educate; however, it does provide a compelling alternative for the student who was never “into” college to begin with, or, more pointedly, the student who is going through great financial hardship to make their education a reality. 

In many ways, these new consortiums are forcing hard choices onto academic institutions, whether they know it or not.  Institutions need to take an objective look at their curricula and their approach to online learning and ask themselves what added value their programs bring to the student.  At the same time, they need to begin exploring whether they have the financial wherewithal to make online programs work.  Online education will never be a panacea for a University’s financial restraints, although it could help boost enrollment beyond the capacity of bricks-and-mortar classrooms.  Nevertheless, decisions need to be made regarding how these courses will reflect the experience the University hopes to provide, or else they risk alienating and losing students overall. 

A company like edX provides an opportunity for all of academia- the opportunity to begin thinking about the content separately from the student experience.  The edX venture also reminds us that educational content is out there for anyone willing to learn.  What does an institution do with the content to set itself apart?  If the answer is “not much,” then now is the time to think about whether they will continue to forge ahead on their own or find partners that will allow them to focus on how they wish to shape their educational experience.  In the end, this will be what sets them apart from the competition.