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This reconfiguration of courses gives students more freedom and creates the possibility of decreasing the time necessary to complete a degree, thereby lowering the cost of a college education. Just as it isn’t reasonable for every course to be the same length, it isn’t necessary to make every student spend four years in college to receive a degree. The principle of evaluation should always be the quality of knowledge acquired rather than the quantity of courses completed.
Virtual HarvardIn two previous articles, I argued that excessive competition and overspecialization are the plagues of higher education. Online education can address both of these problems. By collaborating to provide it, colleges and universities make more efficient use of their limited resources. Producing high- quality online classes isn’t easy and often costs more than investors expect. No proven financial model exists yet.
Some schools facing economic challenges see online education as a source of revenue, but top-tier schools are currently making their courses available free of charge. In the future, I suspect these schools will introduce a variable cost structure for different kinds of courses. A successful online program will strengthen the brand and increase the demand for the “real” Harvard, Yale or Princeton education.
When institutions cooperate in this way, the faculty expands, and students at participating universities as well as other colleges have a broader range of classes from which to choose. Less-affluent schools can outsource courses and even entire departments to qualified providers. Students can take courses from leading teachers and scholars anywhere in the world while receiving credit at the school in which they are enrolled.
Efficiency, however, has its cost. There are going to be winners and losers in the new world of networked higher education. The success of Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford and Princeton online programs will prove a challenge to many colleges and universities. Why pay a quarter of a million dollars to go to a second-tier school when you can get a Harvard education online for little or nothing?
This also raises the question of whether one is paying for an education or certification when attending college. Facing skyrocketing debt and dismal job prospects, many students and their families may even ask whether the difference between the virtual and the real Harvard is worth the cost.
These practical considerations shouldn’t overshadow one of the most promising innovations that online education will bring: The very structure of knowledge will change.
Mix and MatchImagine a curriculum or even an educational institution organized like a web or network rather than an assembly line. As students mix and match courses online, pressure will increase for professors to develop classes that integrate different approaches and disciplines.
This, in turn, will promote research that isn’t confined to current specialized fields and subfields, but will create new areas of inquiry. A more-integrated approach will encourage the development of courses that focus on issues and problems that aren’t narrowly defined but have practical relevance and prepare students to become responsible citizens who are capable of pursuing productive and creative careers.
There is a widening gap between the rate at which knowledge is expanding and the rate at which colleges and universities change. In higher education, as in business, institutions must become more flexible and agile. Colleges and universities that can’t adapt will fail. Departments will either be eliminated or redesigned in ways that support more extensive collaboration among faculty members and students working in different areas.
These changes will meet considerable resistance, but they are unavoidable and will have beneficial results. In all areas of endeavor, innovation comes about by bringing together what is usually held apart. Just as artistic creativity often occurs by mixing different genres, so intellectual innovation frequently results from crossing different disciplines.
With growing competition abroad and increasing financial problems at home, the worldwide pre-eminence of U.S. higher education isn’t assured in the 21st century. Even if it were possible to increase funding in this era of shortsighted austerity, it wouldn’t be enough. A fundamental transformation in higher education will require a thorough rethinking of both what and how we teach.
Colleges and universities will have to be reorganized and create new strategies for cooperation and collaboration that will enable them to provide the best education to the most students for the lowest price. If we have the imagination and determination to rise to this challenge, we will be able to provide the education our children and grandchildren deserve and the world needs.
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