Just like the rooster on my grandfather’s farm in southern West Virginia, MOOCs are waking up higher education. And like many of my colleagues, I am torn when it comes to how I feel about MOOCs.  I have publically called them the academic Pet Rock.

I remember how much I wanted a Pet Rock for Christmas when I was a kid and how excited I was to open up that brown box with the holes in the side.  Nestled in the protective bed of shredded paper, there it was – my very own pet rock. It was the best Christmas ever! 

But within a couple of days, I figured out that the pet rock really didn’t do much of anything except sit there. Bored with it, I put it in a drawer where it remained, out of sight and out of mind for the last thirty years, until my mother recently unearthed it. I see MOOCs in a similar light.

I am excited to see Ivy League and top tier schools finally show interest in delivering quality online education, something I have been advocating for the last 10 years. Regional accreditors, however, don’t know what do to with MOOCs since they fall outside of their purview and are now being forced to look at changing their very traditional model. I see this as a welcome change.

Professors are now excited about going global via the web to convey their knowledge and expertise and they have figured out a way to completely bypass the conventional red tape of course development by cutting out the hierarchy of committees…not to mention circumventing the faculty senate. Now, as more institutions are rushing to accept MOOCs as prior learning credit, the idea that learning can (and does) occur outside of the walls of traditional institutions is gaining traction.

However, MOOCs have their problems. Many schools still will not accept them for credit. Retention rates in most MOOCs are deplorable and the engagement between the faculty and students is nowhere near what it should be.  How could it be when there are over 100,000 students in a class, in some cases, maybe even more? Despite growing investment in providers like Coursera and EdX, there is no realistic model emerging to allow the monetization of these courses.

I believe MOOCs, like my pet rock, will enjoy its short-lived popularity, but will eventually get stuck in a drawer. Just like my grandfather’s rooster really didn’t do much except announce a new day, so crows the MOOC.

“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” That is what immediately popped into my head when I read claims that a pilot program the California State University System plans to launch using Udacity’s online classes to meet student demand in gateway courses is “the end of higher education as we know it” in the TechCrunch.com article penned by Gregory Ferestein on 15 January 2013.

As the CEO of a consortium that delivers quality online classes to over 5,000 community college students, I applaud their efforts to implement an online solution to address a rapidly growing issue that plagues students across the country, not just in California. Here in Kansas, eduKan has been delivering high quality, affordable and accessible online classes while also saving our students and our consortium-member institutions thousands of dollars each year. Although the biggest obstacle for San Jose State University will be figuring out how to hammer the MOOC “square peg” into the traditional “round hole,” it is not big enough to prevent them from launching a successful, affordable and accessible online program that meets the demands of both the institution and the students it serves.  How do I know this?  Because this is what eduKan* has been successfully doing for the past decade.

Although I have yet to uncover the conspiracy theory to replace professors with computers, I have observed the way in which technology is changing the role of faculty from the “sage on stage” to “content expert.” Quality online classes, like those at eduKan, are not run by a computer; they require human intervention – a faculty member who is implicitly and actively involved in every facet of the class, from selecting course curriculum and content, to determining the delivery method of various content, to establishing and evaluating student engagement with course content and with each other, to safe-guarding student success by watching for early indicators of students at risk, to consistently ensuring course content quality through real time feedback from analytics.  And let’s not forget the virtual office hours that online faculty members offer to students for individualized interactions.

What do we need to do to erase the misperception that online classes are comprised solely of content from a traditional class, posted to a static web page and peppered with videos of a professor lecturing to a camera?  The faculty teaching online for eduKan have the resources to design a class that engages the student in ways never before possible.  Using digitally embedded content, we can offer students access to a multitude of multi-modal assets, freeing them from the confines of an expensive one-dimensional textbook. Using moderated threaded discussions; we are able to provide students with myriad social learning opportunities.  Using analytics, we can see how students engage with each other, with the content, and with the faculty.  Using predictive analytics, faculty can identify students who are struggling to be successful and then implement a personalized early intervention strategy.

Perhaps more threatening to traditional faculty than the thought of being replaced by a computer is the assessment data available from analytics.  Before we had the massive amount of irrefutable data gleaned from the activity of the thousands of online students, we were forced to rely upon anecdotal student surveys as one of the only ways to measure the effectiveness of faculty.  At best, the metrics were arbitrary and far too often given little credibility.  Now that analytics has provided unbiased data-driven assessments of faculty performance, there is a new focus on accountability that even tenure can no longer protect.  Far too often what is couched in questions of course rigor and quality is really a diversion tactic employed by feckless faculty.

Indeed, change is coming.

The pilot at San Jose State University is just the beginning.  Online classes are not the “end of higher education as we know it.”  Altruistic institutions that challenge the faculty-centric traditional model of higher education to focus on delivering a quality education their students in a way that is attainable, sustainable and scalable is, in fact, participating in a new beginning. Whether or not this changes higher education in California** remains to be seen.  What I do know, however, is we at eduKan are leading the charge to change the way institutions teach and students learn.

*eduKan is the recipient of the NUTN 2012 Institutional Achievement Award

**See Phil Hill,Guest Blogger’s post on WCET entitled California Switches Driver on Road to Future of Higher Education 

Super Model Kelly LeBrock and Mark Sarver at #MommyTech #CES
Photo courtesy of www.thecubiclechick.com

I was invited to speak at the HigherEdTech Summit as part of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. What a great gathering of the most tech-savvy educators discussing how technology is and should be changing higher education. While there, I had the opportunity to attend an event from the Mommy Tech Summit where I met Kelly LeBrock, supermodel and star of the 80’s movie, “Weird Science.”  I remember watching this movie as a teenager in 1985; I would have chopped off my left arm, or any appendage for that matter, just to be near Kelly LeBrock, much less put it around her!  As it turns out, I got my wish and got to keep all my appendages, but only because I was willing to wait 28 years.

It was at this event that I had the pleasure to meet three ladies, Danyelle, Kitty and Raijean, whose immediate appreciation of my camouflage bowtie clearly indicated their status as fashionistas.  Danyelle Little is a blogger and the digital debutante of TheCubicleChick.com and Kitty Bradshaw of KittyBradshaw.com gives her perspective on her New York Life from a California viewpoint. Raijean promotes both of these ladies and has her own fashion blog at Swa-Rai.com. You might be asking right now, what does fashion and blogging have to do with higher education? When Kitty, a self-professed “small blogger” told me she only had about 30,000 followers, I began to wonder how many of our educational institutions would love to have 30,000 followers?

Our conversation reminded me how far behind higher education is on so many fronts, especially social media and current marketing practices. Admissions departments are still doing the same marketing today that they did back in 1985 when I was being recruited (and watching Weird Science on VHS tape), mailing out tons of printed material and view books.  Higher education, which has served as the catalyst for so many advances in our society, is today in crisis causing a few of my bravest peers at the HigherEdTECH conference to suggest the current model should be scrapped so we can simply start over.

So in an effort to put my blog where my mouth is, I am committing to a weekly post, mostly about higher education but I can’t promise there wont be an occasional rant outside of the industry. Thank you Kitty, Danyelle and Raijean for the inspiration.  Thank you Kelly LeBrock for the hug.  But as much as I want to see higher education change, I’m not willing to wait 28 years for this dream to come true.

Silicon Valley thrives on disruption; academia thrives on tradition. That’s a recipe for tension. Technology has transformed industries: music, publishing, film, health — and education is next in its insatiable path.

…Behind every course lies big data — an aggregate of who’s learning what, how and when. Companies including Kno, CourseSmart, 2U and eduKan will look at what it means for educators to have real-time knowledge of what students are learning and how students learn best.

The conference also explores the printed book and whether technology will lead to its ultimate demise as the lynchpin in the classroom.

Click here to read the rest of the article by Robin Raskin, Living in Digital Times

Dr. Sarver will be a panelist at the HigherEdTECH Summit discussing eduKan’s successful use of analytics to track student progress in distance education to improve student retention, identify at-risk students, & better manage learning outcomes.

Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO of eduKan, a consortium of colleges in Kansas, will be speaking at the 2013 HigherEdTECH Summit at the CES (International Consumer Electronics Show), Thursday, January 10^th 2013 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Dr. Sarver will be joining a group of expert panelists who will be talking about using analytics gleaned from educational data to understand what’s working and what isn’t in addition to platforms and technology tools.

HigherEdTECH is presented by Living in Digital Times and brings together the educators, journalists, high tech experts, and policymakers changing higher education and showcases the latest technologies and digital services. The HigherEdTECH conference is held in the midst of the (CES) Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s largest technology arena and the best place to be part of this unique strategic dialog, preview the hottest digital innovations, and network with thought leaders and potential partners.

Mark Sarver is the CEO of eduKan, a consortium of colleges delivering online education. His prior experience in Advancement and Enrollment Management informs his expertise in higher education strategy and spans virtually all aspects of institutional management, including marketing and financial analysis. He has created, taught, and administered courses in leadership, organizational behavior, accounting, international business marketing and management for universities and community colleges around the country. Sarver has assisted faculty and administrators in conceptualizing and designing online courses given direction to schools for designing program assessment policies. His leadership experience bridges academic sectors that range from private to public colleges and universities to for-profit and not-for-profit institutions. He is a recognized speaker on educational innovation, emerging analytics-driven content, and engaging minorities in education through technology, and is considered an educational futurist.

Dr. Sarver will be joining a group of renowned experts in their fields at this HigherEdTECH Summit panel on Thursday, January 10, 2013
 Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, N256 from 3:00-4:00pm entitled “The New Math:  Is Analytics Adding Up?”  The panelists include Mark Sarver, Ph.D., CEO, eduKan, Jim Ambach, Senior Vice  President, Product Management, CourseSmart LLC, Babur Habib, Ph.D., CTO and Co-founder, Kno Inc. , Mike Sharkey, Director of Academic Analytics, University of Phoenix with Seth Reynolds, from The Parthenon Group as moderator.

For more information on the HigherEdTECH Summit and how to attend, please visit http://www.higheredtechsummit.com.

Here is a video interview of Dr. Sarver talking with Pearson about Project Aristotle and how eduKan is using analytics for creating better education opportunities for students.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YzBhVsY36g]

About eduKan

eduKan provides access to quality higher education, including ESL courses, via college degrees, certificates, and individual courses, with affordable online classes. eduKan was founded in 1998 as a cooperative effort between member colleges to offer courses via the Internet. eduKan’s consortium schools are all accredited Kansas learning institutions with excellent reputations and long histories of providing degrees in traditional settings, as well as through online courses. eduKan Consortium member institutions are: Barton Community College, in Great Bend; Colby Community College, in Colby; Dodge City Community College, in Dodge City; Garden City Community College, in Garden City; Pratt Community College, in Pratt; and Seward County Community College/Area Technical School, in Liberal. For more information, please visit http://www.edukan.org.

About HigherEdTECH

HigherEdTECH 2012 is where higher education and technology converge at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV. To be held on Thursday, January 10, 2013 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, HigherEdTECH is an exciting mash-up of educators, technology visionaries, journalists and academic publishers. The HigherEdTECH Summit is presented by Living in Digital Times, producer of the following summits and exhibitions at CES: Digital Health, Fitness Tech, Kids@Play, MommyTech, Mobile Apps Showdown and Last Gadget Standing. For more information about HigherEdTECH, visit www.higheredtechsummit.com.

About CEA

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $206 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. More than 2,000 companies enjoy the benefits of CEA membership, including legislative advocacy, market research, technical training and education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CEA also owns and produces the International CES – The Global Stage for Innovation. All profits from CES are reinvested into CEA’s industry services. Find CEA online: www.CE.org and www.DeclareInnovation.com.