Without fundamental reform, universities will not be able to compete with cheaper and more effective online education providers. While many young people are still going to university, a growing portion of the best and the brightest students have given up attending classes, because the information is available in a more easily ingested form online.
There will be more post secondary courses delivered by MOOCS in a few years than all face to face university courses combined. Universities must shift their business model from the centuries-old notion that a professor lectures students, to a more collaborative, interactive model. Instead of being the “sage on the stage,” teachers should be the co-pilot for students as they explore and collaborate online to acquire knowledge. We need to reinvent how content is created thought creating a meta-university, or a network for higher learning.” The university also needs to change its relationship to other institutions in society.
