Monday, July 9, 2012

Online Ed Isn’t as Good as a Degree, But Universities Are Still in Trouble - Walter Frick, BostInno

Make the case that universities are threatened by the rise of free online education (as I have) and you’ll quickly hear a laundry list of the extra benefits that make a university education superior. But what you’re really hearing is the death knell of the traditional university model. The term “disruptive innovation” is thrown around a lot these days, including in the context of education, but I’ve been thinking more lately about what it really means, having recently read a profile of HBS legend Clay Christensen as well as heard him talk at TEDx Boston. In Christensen’s model of disruptive innovation (he coined the term) the response but a university education is still better is just what you’d expect to hear. According to Christensen, innovators typically start out in the lower end of the market, making cheaper, lower quality products for consumers previously excluded from the incumbents’ products. As the innovators slowly creep up the market, the incumbents retreat to the high end, a process that continues until the incumbents are displaced.

http://bostinno.com/2012/07/01/online-ed-isnt-as-good-as-a-degree-but-universities-are-still-in-trouble/