ASU Partnership with EDEX

[cptdilbert]

The cynic in me tells me this will bubble somehow. Especially when all the adjuncts and professors start losing their jobs, the unions and the lobbyist will somehow convince State Schools to not accept these courses under the guise of "inadequate education".

I am guessing you have never had to sit through a 300+ seat lecture lead by a grad student rather than a professor! Most schools, especially the more prestigious ones, tend to be research focused. This means the higher end of the market focuses on research and professors exist primarily to teach graduate students. While I think MOOCs will be somewhat disruptive, I don't think it will have any more impact than the correspondence courses and online courses that came before it.

Even things like Straighterline have existed longer than you would expect. A lot of the extension schools are not run out of the college they are part of, and are often closer to private companies. Look into Laureate International Universities for example. They have been around since 1999, and are actually a rebranding of a a significant portion of Sylvan Learning Systems, which has been around since 1979.

This private company is the semi-secret face behind lots of not-so-private online programs. In fact, the only online AACSB accredited business doctorate is offered through the University of Liverpool, a public school in the UK.

The asterisk though is the program is actually through Laureatte, a completely private company.

The biggest disruption to the education market will be real competency based education. CBE Network is up to 30 schools and 4 educational systems, which is a big leap over the last few years. Additionally the Department of Education is signing off on more experimental programs so that these programs qualify for financial aid. There is starting to be more and more real competency programs, which I think is the most exciting possibility for the future of education.