"Using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy: Part 1
By Tony Bates, on October 10th, 2009
Is e-learning failing in higher education?
In previous blogs, I have discussed whether e-learning is failing in higher education. To answer the question, I have examined the expectations or goals for e-learning, and whether they are being achieved.
Finally, I come to the last goal or expectation: that e-learning will increase the cost-effectiveness of higher education. I will argue that this is the most important and valuable of all the goals for e-learning, but is the one that is furthest from being achieved."
Tony Bates reckons these ideas won't 'sell' in most conventional universities... "which is why I think we need new universities that start from scratch"... I'm wondering what he actually *means* by 'start from scratch'...?! There's some interesting comments accompanying this post about what role 'traditional universities' will take in the future.
George Siemens brings us back to earth a bit with his comments on Tony's vision... http://news.te-wu.eu/media-literacy-making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-by-george-siemens-oct-17-09-209/
I think it's great to have a vision, but we all need to identify what we personally - and others - need to do to make parts of that vision real, and go ahead and do it.
"Using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy: Part 2
By Tony Bates, on October 14th, 2009
Identifying the problem with higher education in the 21st was the easy part (Using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy: Part 1). Much more difficult is finding solutions to the problem.
Summary of the problem
In Part 1, I argued that the challenge for universities today is that
* student numbers have increased dramatically,
* students are much more varied in abilities, age, and culture,
* quality of teaching, as expressed in overlarge classes, as a result has dropped and continues to drop, despite the addition of technology
* the cost per graduate is increasing
* the teaching and organizational models though have not changed fundamentally to adapt to these other changes."