The Changing Face of “College”

There is good news and bad in higher education today,

The bad news for colleges  is related to high tuition cost. That will end simply because students will not pay full tuition for online courses.

Second, early efforts  to transfer classroom taught courses online will fail. Traditional classroom courses will be poorly designed for distance learning and take longer than necessary to complete.

And, finally, a high percentage of colleges unable to resume classroom instruction in Fall will be compelled to shut down. What percentage? At least 25%.

What if classes cannot resume in Fall, 2021?  At least 75% will be shuttered.

That bleak prediction compels the higher education Establishment to “get real,” as some students would say.

What does that entail?

First, learning the principles of instructional design for Web-based “distance learning.” Here are some “Best Practices.”

Second, open up the doors  to “Regional Accreditation” to companies already offering online courses. Current “Standards” of regional accreditation require that 51% of courses be offered in classrooms.

Third, turn over all Title IV funds–as long as they exist–to  the States to utilize in support of services and programs fitted to the needs of those States.

Top down higher education decided by the U.S. Department of Education has no place in this swiftly changing environment.

Let education entrepreneurs thrive unrestricted by State authorization regulations. Permit boutique programs to offer courses for degree credit and allow competition to decide which programs fail and which do not. You can read about it in this book or listen to an interview that explains why higher education is in the pickle it’s in today.