By Azer Bestavros
Straw Man #2
In an effort to curb tuition cost, BU undergraduate courses with more than 40 students are turned into hybrid courses. A hybrid course blends face-to-face interactions of some kind with on-line educational technologies such as online course cartridges, assignments, discussion boards, and other web-assisted learning tools. In going to this model, startup costs notwithstanding, no additional teaching staff (faculty or TFs) would be added in the long term; rather it is expected that less human resources will be needed (hence the cost efficiency).
Questions:
- What might such courses look like? Notice that the flipped classroom model – which is an instance (albeit narrow) of what hybrid courses might look like – does not lend itself to the envisioned transformation of large-lecture courses because it requires more (not less) resources.
- What would be the impact on undergraduate residential education?
- What would be the impact on the financial model?
- What would be the impact on BU’s physical infrastructure given the less demand on large lecture halls? What changes to BU’s physical infrastructure (e.g., adding connected spaces) would be needed to serve the hybrid model?
- Hybrid courses could be offered in an asynchronous fashion. What might be the impact of making large-lecture courses asynchronous on time to degree?
- What current BU resources could be leveraged to support such a transformation? Are any of these resources unique to BU? What new resources would be needed?
- What might an experiment (or sets of experiments) to test the possibility of adopting such a platform look like?
Straw Man #3
Given the increased inter-disciplinarily nature of many emerging fields, it is clear that individual departments are not able to offer the “right” program for undergraduate or graduate preparation in these fields. A good example is “Cybersecurity” which transcends computer science, international relations, sociology, psychology, economics, etc. Even within a single discipline (such as computer science), there is need to cover very different topics (e.g., crypto, network security, privacy, data mining, natural language processing, ….) Due to the range of disciplines they touch and even the range of topics within a single discipline, it is seldom the case that one finds a reputable program or degree in “Cybersecurity” (or “Big Data” or “Digital Journalism”, … This is the case even though there is huge demand for such specializations. The advent of on-line technologies and the increased acceptance of MOOCs offer a unique opportunity to develop a platform for combining assets (mostly faculty expertise and existing courses) from a self-selecting consortium of universities to address this need. The main point is that a single university (however big and reputable it is) cannot alone provide the diversity of top-rated courses to fill the need.
Questions:
- What might a platform supporting this vision look like?
- What would be the economic model?
- Who would offer the degree when a consortium of universities is involved?
- What current BU resources could be leveraged to support such a transformation? Are any of these resources unique to BU? What new resources would be needed?
- What might an experiment (or sets of experiments) to test the possibility of adopting such a platform look like?
The University of the Future
Ernst & Young published an interesting report on “The University of the Future”. The report is focusing on higher education in Australia and International Research Institutions.
CETLI Meeting on 11/1
From: Sandonato, Judith Evans
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 10:23 AM
Subject: CETLI Meeting 11/1
Dear Council Member:
The Council on Educational Technology and Learning Innovation (CETLI) will meet next Thursday, November 1, from 12PM-1:30PM, in the Kenmore Room, 1 Silber Way, 9th Floor. Lunch will be provided.
Please let me know if you use Outlook Calendar for your scheduling. If the majority use Outlook, I will use it to send out future meeting invitations.
Blog updates
Intranet Discussion Forums assertions listing: https://www.bu.edu/edtechcouncil/intranet/council-blog/
Webinar posts: https://www.bu.edu/edtechcouncil/2012/11/18/noteworthy/
Please reply to this email to confirm your attendance and indicate your use of Outlook Calendar. Thank you.
Best regards,
Judith
Judith E. Sandonato
Special Assistant to the President
Boston University Office of the President
One Silber Way
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
T 617-353-3441 F 617-353-3278
jsandona@bu.edu
Assertion #1
The current economic model of higher education teaching, learning and credentialing is under financial pressure because of the cost in financial and human capital needed to adapt this model to either increased student demand or pressure to moderate the growth of tuition.
Assertion #2
The need for higher education on a global scale far exceeds the capacity of our classical delivery models.
Assertion #3
In residential education, effective alternatives to the traditional, lecture based pedagogical model of higher education, such as the “flipped classroom,” can promote better learning outcomes and engage today’s students in ways more aligned with their preferences, increased on-line interactions, and the digital environments in which they will work.
Assertion #4
Beyond the classroom, technology will change many of the tools and means that support learning, such as textbooks, laboratories, studios, and libraries.Moreover, it will make available new types of data to assist authors and instructors in assessing and improving pedagogy, with significant opportunities for innovation.
Assertion #5
High quality, prestigious options for specialized, fully online degree programs will increase the competitiveness of the online learning marketplace.
Assertion #6
High quality Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC’s) may become students’preferred choice for completing introductory coursework and will be accepted by most institutions as transfer credit.
