Changing Higher Education

How a course-rich world might impact higher education: II. Creating new institutions

In part I of this series, How a course-rich world might impact higher education: I. Technology vs pedagogy, I looked at some of the characteristics of the readily-available new college level courses (NCLCs) that have created a course-rich world. In this post, I discuss using this new course-rich resource to create new institutions using higher education business models that are radically different from the faculty-centric model that is traditional in higher education.

In these new models few, if any, traditional, permanent faculty are needed to produce the educational product, which is provided primarily by the NCLCs. Social media increasingly is used to both improve learning and create peer relationships. Examples of such models can be found among the many organizations trying to provide essentially free degrees (e.g. University of the People),  parts of typical degrees such as the first two years (e.g. StraighterLine), and lower-cost degrees (e.g. WGU).

A step forward in California, an ambiguous step at HLC

California's Democratic State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has just introduced a very important bill called An online student access platform (with details in amendments):

Creates a faculty-led, quality-first framework allowing online course providers to have strategically selected courses approved and placed in a state-level clearinghouse through which students may access the courses and receive credit at the UC, CSU, and California Community Colleges

This bill seeks to remedy the very significant lack of capacity in California public higher education that is reflected in the enormous number of applicants unable ot gain entrance into the systems, large wait-lists for seats in important classes, and the delayed times-to-graduation.