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Corporate training is expected to go online and expand its share of the pie although the pie may grow, too. By the mid-1990's, the training budget for Andersen Consulting was larger than the total budget for the University of Maryland system. (I discovered this at a conference session given by an Andersen consultant and attended by a UM provost.)
UB School of
Management sets Web-based MBA program
by Brian Meyer
Buffalo News, September 15, 2000
The University at Buffalo School of Management, hoping to
stake its claim in what is projected to be a $5.5 billion market for
online-education within two years, is launching what educators are calling an
"anywhere, anytime" Web-based MBA program.
The academic standards set forth in the 16 Web-based courses are identical to
those of UB's campus-based MBA programs. ...
The new initiative will open to UB a vast market - including students who are
out-of-state and overseas ...
The group interaction that occurs in traditional classroom settings can't be
duplicated online, even with Web-based group projects or frequent e-mail
correspondence with professors.
A little over a year later, UB shut down this Web-based MBA because it was so teacher-intensive.
The large, impersonal classes at UB are ripe for replacement by instructional distance education "systems" like Blackboard, WebCT Educational Technologies, and WBT Systems' TopClass.
It's very easy for instructionist pedagogy, the Factory Model, to scale up and adapt to distance education because it's already pretty distant from the students and their learning. The material will be covered by the teacher even if half the class flunks. Since most lecturers are boring, they can easily be replaced by technology delivering lectures by professional entertainers or scholars with world-class reputations. Given the economies of scale that interest administrators, it's safe to say that in many schools, lecturers will be replaced by distance education. It might not allow for individual questions after class, but it will be cheaper and it will be "good enough". Education will become another sector of the service economy that got re-structured and downsized.
Constructivist pedagogy, the Apprenticeship Model, doesn't scale and can't be replaced by distance education technologies. It can, however, use the Web to great advantage.
Plato as Distance
Education Pioneer: Status and Quality Threats of Internet Education
by Gary Klass
First Monday, volume 5, number 7, July 2000
Here's the conclusion:
Whatever the quality of the distance education products
developed by textbook publishers and course delivery software outlets, the
standards for these courses will be set by those who seek to enroll the most
frat boys.
And there's not much faculty can do about it and preserve their traditional
perquisites at the same time. "Rear-guard" efforts to control the
diffusion of distance education by setting university or discipline-wide
standards for online courses are likely to result in the same protests
concerning restrictions on faculty autonomy and academic freedom that David
Noble raised in opposition to distance education < http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_1/noble/
>.
On the positive side, those colleges and universities that do not depend on the
political economy of the cash cow and the large lecture hall, that provide a
"real" rather than a "virtual" education, that provide an
integrated four-year curriculum, with students taking small classes from real
professors in real classrooms, and that become more efficient by eliminating
functions and activities that are truly extraneous to undergraduate education,
may survive the distance education revolution quite nicely.
The only thing I would add to Klass's list is right after "real professors in real classrooms". I would add Ricci Street, which is beginning to use the Web for student learning, not distance education. Big difference.
Net
Knowledge: The Coming Revolution in Higher Education
by Martin Irvine
Gnovis, December 2000
The Internet economy usually treats centralized control as damage and routes around it.
The Work of
Education in the Age of E-College
by Chris Werry
First Monday, May 2001
There has recently been a mad rush by universities, venture
capitalists and corporations to develop online courses, virtual universities,
education portals, and courseware. The drive to develop a winning formula for
commercial online education has fostered some unusual partnerships. This paper
provides a broad overview of some models of online education that have been
developed by commercial and academic institutions. It examines some of the
rhetorical strategies that have been used to talk about online education by
commercial groups, and discusses some of the hopes and fears that have been
associated with online instruction by academics, administrators, and
businesspeople.
The paper outlines some of the main players and positions involved in debates
about online education, and suggests some strategies that academic groups ought
to explore. In particular, the author argues that academics need something an
open source movement for academic resources, akin to the Free Software
Foundation. This 'Free Courseware Foundation' would give teachers greater
control of their resources, and better enable them to share materials with other
teachers and with the public.
I find the Cardean approach interesting. They're billing
themselves as "world class" and leaning on the reputations of their
consortium: Columbia University, The University of Chicago, Stanford University,
The London School of Economics and Political Science, and Carnegie Mellon
University. Here's their description of their "Learning Environment".
Note how often it uses "learning" and how seldom I needed to use it in
the discussion of higher education.
http://www.cardean.com/
(Sorry, but I can't give more specific URLs. The site uses frames and databases, so you'll just have to go to the home page and click from there.)
Imagine listening to Beethoven's great Ninth Symphony on an old transistor radio. You'd understand quickly that premium content alone is not enough to guarantee a rich experience. Beyond the cumulative knowledge of our academic consortium, Cardean is committed to advancing the way businesses and individuals learn. Developments in cognitive science and technology have created an unprecedented opportunity to shape an entirely new learning community. Unlike much distance learning, Cardean is a highly involving, highly motivating environment that features:
Student-centered design
Much traditional education is built around instructors' needs. We've inverted
that model and built Cardean to serve the needs of learners. Students learn
anytime and anyplace. Students' individual styles, interests, and schedules will
shape their own personalized paths to learning.
Real-world relevance
In the real world, learning occurs when you set out to solve a problem. Cardean
courses emulate this approach to learning. For the most part, they are
structured around real-world business projects. This model is not only
inherently motivating, it also ensures that Cardean knowledge is highly relevant
in the workplace.
Collaboration
Cardean learning stimulates interaction. Using collaborative tools such as
discussions and e-mail, students can interact with faculty and each other as
often as they want. This not only provides them with a learning support network,
it also furnishes them with a wide variety of perspectives and a strong sense of
underlying community — hallmarks of successful business environments. To
experience our learning environment first hand, try our course demo.
other pages in this Higher Education web
overview | industry
portrait | stakeholders
history | pedagogical models
| present and future pressures on the models
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