The challenges of online learning for the public university

I recently attended a higher education conference where the head of a large state university system talked candidly about the impact of online education on public universities and public research universities, in particular. It was a frank and thoughtful assessment of the issues confronting these institutions.

Hopefully I can do some justice to the concepts covered by this presenter. He asserted that research universities exist to produce revenue in order to buy quality in the form of the best research faculty. Conflict occurs between the various missions of the research university, in part, because colleges and universities must operate within the expectations of the marketplace, and that marketplace operates within a rigid paradigm about what constitutes a college education. The paradigm is based on the concept best represented by the liberal arts college where young people go to live while they complete a bachelor’s degree in four years time.

I might note that he was very critical of completion or graduation rates, which he described as “silly” and that capture only a small subset of the contemporary student body. The rates are tightly tied to the rigid paradigm and measure only those students who actually stay at the college they first enrolled at and study full-time until they either quit or finish.

He talked about the brand value of a traditional public institution and said that it is an aggregation of two different products: education and context. That brand value for a campus-based institution is about more than learning or learning outcomes. It is also about the context within which the student lives and studies and involves the social networking that occurs when students live in the campus community. That “growing up” and making new friends and networking with people in a professional area are tied up in the brand. He asserts that distance education has disaggregated these two products, delivering learning without the context. It is his belief that one of the problems facing public institutions is that the public expects there to be some connection between the cost to educate and the price charged to students. But, much of the cost is driven by non-learning, context components of the aggregated product: education and context. That context involves large new buildings with lots of esthetic appeal that often results in wasted space. There were other examples provided. But, the challenge that he described is that these institutions need to produce revenue. They recognize there is a demand for online learning but it is difficult to figure out how to capitalize on a brand that mixes learning with the feel of the campus, the context. When so much of current brand value is tied up in the aggregation of these two different products how do you eliminate one product and sustain brand value for the remaining product? Will simple delivery of learning hold up when separated from the context? Will such delivery, if successful, raise questions about the real value of context and undercut the university’s ability to seek revenues tied to the current brand? In other words, can they really sustain both an aggregated product offering and differentiate it from a disaggregated learning product offering? So far, the betting is on being very conservative and cautious about embracing change that could threaten their brand.

I certainly understand and empathize with the institutions that face this challenge. But, at the same time, I question what this means for those students who don’t fit the “rigid paradigm,” the other 85% who must work and study part-time. It seems to mean that any changes in the traditional public colleges and universities will continue to be slow in coming. And, it seems to indicate that there is a continuing need for institutions committed to serving the majority of students who don’t fit the paradigm – adult-serving colleges and universities.

Do the challenges as outlined above seem realistic? Does my conclusion that this demands specialized institutions make sense? Please post your comments and ideas.

Mike