If colleges were businesses they would be right for hostile takeovers, complete with serious costcutting and painful reorganizations.
US News and World Report
COVID has forced universities to do online teaching. What’s the value add of spending $70K (USD) for online instruction, when you paid for sports, in-class instruction, and the college experience? In 2021 and 2022, we’ll find out as university students who have been taught online for a year or even longer.
Lots of questions? What is the value-added differentiator in an educator or a college? College or instructor branding? Some colleges are Ivy League branded. Some professors may be more inspirational, possess greater wisdom, hold more degrees, and be more engaging instructors.
What’s going to happen to legions of professors who signed on for life-long tenure, when they’re not needed?
Story: But introductory classes used to have 200 to 500 students in a huge auditorium and now 1000’s online. Real instruction is usually conducted by teaching assistants, who have their own priorities. There are now YouTube instructors who offer the same information for free. And if you want to be self-taught, there are hundreds of free resources on the web. Multiply this situation by 1000’s of universities in one country with the same Marketing and Economics classes.
So, let’s run a hypothetical scenario: Each college and university has 10 or more professors teaching the same class, such as Marketing 101 or Economics 101. Most instructors have the same knowledge, skills, and abilities in their respective disciplines. Who retains their jobs in a sector that is disrupting? Tough question.
Higher education: Sounds like a market ripe for disruption, disintermediation, and friction reduction through just-in-time online education. One or even two professors in a discipline may be laureates, world-class, and exceptional instructors. They will ascend and disrupt.
Work Lesson Earned: Why do we spend so much space and words in this book talking about education? Because you can see COVID disrupting all types of education in real time. So, what is the value-added differentiator in a college or professor? Now, ask the same question about yourself. What’s your value-added differentiator in terms of your specific knowledge domain, qualifications, credentials, functions, etc.?
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