Online education can be mainstream in just a couple of years. Harvard and MIT are already operational with free online courses. Platforms for interaction with college experience highly interactive. Massive, open, online courses will forever change the educational landscape.
Professional
service company Ernst &Young recognized this exact thing in their report
“University of the future: a thousand year old industry on the cusp of profound
changes”(2013). They see the expansion of online resources and the way
courses will be delivered will also have consequences for the funding of universities,
and the global mobility of students and staff. The residential student life
will remain in the future, but there will also be a great deal of students who
choose for the online experience.
The benefits
are attractive, e. g. not having to move to a university town, pick the best
education globally at very low costs and being able to do other work aside of
studying which makes it also easier to study later on in life. And maybe
students in the future won’t miss the traditional campus based student life.
The access
that online education provides to higher education allows students to choose
for the best curriculum available. The popular vote will also show which ones
are the less popular teachers, which will obviously have consequences and
announces a shake out for schools.
Ernst &
Young see three ways of evolution in the universities landscape:
-A
“streamlined status quo”, with established schools progressively changing the
way they deliver courses
-“Niche
dominators”, targeting particular customer segments with tailored education,
research and related services.
-“Transformers”
– new entrants carving out new positions and create new market space
The report
identifies the main drivers of change it says will inevitably
bring about a transformation of higher education. These are:
1. The
democratization of knowledge as a consequence of massive expansion of online
resources
2. Digital
technologies changing the way courses are delivered
3. Global
mobility of students and stuff
4.
Integration with industry to differentiate programmes (through work-integrated
learning) and to support and fund applied research
Current
university models are living on borrowed times. Government funding is tight and
is going to be fighter still in the next couple of political cycles (until 2020
probably). WHILE THEY ARE NOT EXACTLY BUSINESSES, THEY WILL HAVE TO RUN LIKE
BUSINESSESS, said CEO of EY Justin Bokor.
One of our
interviewees said: “Our number one competitor in 10 years time will be Google –
if we are still in business”, Bokor said.
The changes
from classroom teaching to online education is definitely coming. The internet
is jist there to make it happen. With obvious advantages for students globally
and opportunities for highly regarded universities to confirm their established
names, this seems an unstoppable trend. So look forward to the universities of
the future.
Няма коментари:
Публикуване на коментар