Adult-Serving Online Institutions are the Higher Education Innovators

Robert G. Henshaw has written a very interesting article about technology in higher education through 2035 in the current issue of the Journal of Online Education.

This is a thoughtful piece that describes higher education institutions as being at a crossroads. He states that institutions to date have too often “simply bolted on technology to enable traditional pedagogies” and that “transformational innovations in residential educational settings has been limited to isolated pockets.” He points out that online delivery of higher education has extended access to both “traditional and nontraditional students.”

Despite the opportunity to extend access, he describes how some institutions are avoiding online delivery “in order to maintain the exclusivity of their brands.” See a previous blog entry that addressed this matter, http://www.theother85percent.com/?p=23. He states that “private and prestigious public institutions, which are the most likely to pursue this strategy, occupy a somewhat paradoxical position with regard to instructional innovation. On the one hand, they are well positioned financially and can attract creative faculty members. On the other hand, their faculty members have fewer incentives to reinvent the traditional classroom experience. As a result, their investments in innovation tend to take the form of high-profile exemplars that rarely impact student learning at the institutional level.”

This is fascinating. What it says is that innovation is occurring in those institutions other than the private and prestigious public institutions. It is these “other” institutions where innovation is happening, where the learning is being reinvented, and where innovation is actually impacting students. He distinguishes the “private and prestigious public institutions” where innovation is limited from those institutions that see “the burgeoning adult education market as their future.”

There is much more that Mr. Henshaw covers. He addresses how competition for faculty will become fierce in coming years, how more learning will occur outside the classroom, changing demographics, increased assessment opportunities and challenges, and more.

But for me, having spent many years in extending access to higher education for adults, it is both fulfilling and amazing to think that institutions and programs that serve adults are finally being recognized as the innovators – the leaders. It is certainly an interesting time to be in higher education.

Your thoughts?

Mike