ACE Supports So Called Disruptions in Higher Education Business Models | Inside Higher Ed

I love studying/being part of higher education right now. It is the perfect confluence of my startup experiences/business education and my PhD research and teaching/work at the Mason Center for Social Entrepreneurship. I am by no means part of the industry elite — never been to an ACE event or even a traditional academic conference — but I do enjoy reading about them. From Paul Fain at Inside Higher Ed:

The council says it wants more students to earn college credit for learning that occurs outside the college classroom. Some of these credit pathways are trendy and new; others have been around for decades. But interest in prior learning assessment has grown rapidly, particularly during the last six months, and ACE is riding the wave.

ACE’s leaders say they are giving a boost to alternative credit pathways because of the college “completion agenda,” work force development and money worries that are buffeting colleges.“We are experiencing a confluence of forces of change,” Molly Broad, the council’s president, recently told the University of Wisconsin System’s Board of Regents. “All of this coming together is persuasive that business as usual is not in the future cards and we must innovate.

“While it’s known primarily as a lobby and membership group, ACE, whose annual meeting opened Sunday, has long had a hand in prior learning assessment. The council started issuing credit recommendations for military service shortly after World War II, and added the assessment of corporate training programs for credit in 1974. These days students can get transcripts for ACE’s credit recommendations for $20 a pop. The council has issued 63,000 credit transcripts since 2001.

The article goes on to explain in great detail the recent, large push towards awarding credits for ‘alternative’ learning — ie work experience or MOOCs and a variety of other options.  Its an interesting debate and it underscores how much people still value degrees even with the push to self-led learning (Uncollege), dropping out, badges, and all of the other opportunities being presented to today’s learners.  Degree attainment is a policy goal of President Obama and many other leaders — whether it crosses a point of diminishing returns. But with technology, budget challenges, debt reflux, etc… its a really interesting time for higher education.

Btw, for many colleges these alternative credits could be a gold mine. Its kind of like Amazon.com’s marketplace — where Amazon.com plays host to a buyer and seller and collects basic fees, and often upsells both parties on more items/services. This business model is much more high margin (profitable) than Amazon actually stocking and selling things themselves.

Also, while we are talking Amazon, lets think Kindle/ebook model — digital products served on demand with few physical activities and interactions before, during or after the sale. MOOCs/distance are the proxy for higher education. Like the Amazon marketplace model, this model should be higher margin than traditional sales, distribution, delivery, and service — even compared to Amazon’s original model of selling books online only (which was radical at the time).

Enjoy Fain’s piece and let me know what ACE’s angle is?

via ACE doubles down on prior learning assessment | Inside Higher Ed.

Colleges to Use New E-Reader Devices | The Chronicle of Higher Education

Nice piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education on new e-readers that are being used on campus. We are well beyond the Amazon Kindle and the multi-purpose Apple iPad,

We have long wondered when the e-reader will fully arrive on campus and whether the economics of ‘textbooks’ will be changed with the arrival of e-books and e-readers. From Kelly Truong:

One of the new e-readers is called Kno, which was announced in June and will be given to about 100 students at three colleges. The Kno sports two 14-inch screens, allowing users to read on one screen while writing notes on the other. With a pen stylus, students are able to highlight text and make annotations as they read. Both screens are LCD rather than the e-ink technology used in the Kindle, which means they can display in color, but they could be harder on the eyes for long reading sessions. The company plans to make the product available on the market just before Christmas.

Kno’s founder, Osman Rashid, argues that students who have tested the device so far found it more portable than a laptop computer. “They think the laptop becomes the new desktop, because this gives them everything they need during the day,” Mr. Rashid said.

Some Colleges to Test Dual-Screen E-Reader Devices – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

More Disruptions in the Textbook Market

Wow, it appears we are on the cusp (or in the midst) of a textbook revolution. Students, parents, and campus entrepreneurs should be dancing in the streets. We have been talking a lot about e-books lately, but have talked textbooks more generally here (Godin), there, and other places.

Today brings even more news, Barnes and Noble is buying back its College Booksellers (it was independent), digital textbook maker Akademos just took in more VC, and the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation has given money to the Community College Collaborative for Open Education Resources. Doug Lederman has a nice post on the subject at InsideHigherEd.com. From Lederman:

The third and last of Monday’s news developments also comes in the digital textbook arena — but from the free, rather than for-profit, perspective. The Community College Collaborative for Open Educational Resources said the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation had given it $1.5 million in new funds to expand its work, which focuses on increasing the number of free, online textbooks and training community college instructors on how best to use such books. Its main resource, the Community College Open Textbook Project, has dozens of college members and seeks to significantly expand the number of freely available digital textbooks it makes available.

“This grant comes at an opportune time,” said Mike Brandy, chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which leads the online collaborative. “It coincides with the growing interest in open educational resources, such as President Obama’s proposal to invest $500 million over the next decade in developing free high school and college courses. Open textbooks are moving into the mainstream as financially distressed states such as California look to free digital textbooks to reduce the cost of public education.”

By the way, I also read (h/t TechFlash) that the iPhone now has a textbook reader and a small catalog of textbooks from CourseSmart.

Seth Godin Goes After Textbook Industry (and Profs)

We have covered a lot of startups (& startups) and technologies going into the textbook market — the cost of books have been a pain for students and families for decades. Seth Godin, ‘marketing genius,’ has decided to enter the fray with his posting Textbook Rant. Godin claims professors who assign textbooks are practicing academic malpractice — he may be right! His piece covers old ground but it is concise and worth a read. Importantly, he offers advice for professors on spending their time “devising pages or chapterettes or even entire chapters on topics that matter to them, then publishing them for free online,”

Here is a snippet:

They are incredibly impractical. Not just in terms of the lessons taught, but in terms of being a reference book for years down the road.

In a world of wikipedia, where every definition is a click away, it’s foolish to give me definitions to memorize. Where is the context? When I want to teach someone marketing (and I do, all the time) I never present the information in the way a textbook does. I’ve never seen a single blog post that says, “wait until I explain what I learned from a textbook!”

Any thoughts? Especially those of you who are Professors?

New Kindle to Target Campus

A few months back, with the release of the Kindle 2, we opined that Amazon was clearly going to bring ‘creative destruction’ to the campus textbook market.

Last week, Jeff Bezos/Amazon introduced the Kindle DX. This larger Kindle (from screen to memory to price) is targeting the campus market. According to a piece by Chris Gaylord in the CS Monitor,

Many hoped that the original Kindle heralded a major shift in the college textbook market, with its hefty prices and heavier tomes. Little has changed in the past couple of years, but Bezos says that the DX has its sights set on campuses.

“We’re going to get students with smaller backpacks, less load,” he says. The company has signed deals with three major textbook publishers, which together represent about two-thirds of the market. Amazon even arranged for five universities to test out the new model. Students at Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, the University of Virginia, and Reed College will receive trial copies of the DX.

I have yet to really play with a Kindle (my Dad has the first version and my mom just received the Kindle 2 for Mother’s Day from my Dad), but am interested to hear how the trials go at the Universities partnering with Amazon. BTW, are their Apps for Kindles? Apps for students, on Kindles, would seem to be a great market for entrepreneurs.

Kindle to Bring Creative Destruction to Textbook/Library Market?

We have seen many campus entrepreneurs enter the textbook market; it is a huge cost for students and bringing relief has driven many new companies. Amazon, while not a pure play in the textbook market, has brought great benefits to the market.

With the release of the Kindle 2 it becomes clear that this type of device may go to the crux of the textbook issue: new editions. The publication (and printing) of new editions of textbooks has driven costs up for students and made large profits for publishers, profs, and schools; by moving to a Kindle-like device, new editions would no longer have huge costs from print/shipping etc. So just as applications, software, and itunes update digitally, so would text books. It would of course kill the used market for books, having widespread consequences.

Moreover, instead of just buying the e-version (or Kindle version) of the book, students could rent it (or perhaps subscribe like Rhapsody) and have access during the semester or term that they need the book. Next up would be entire collections — obviously Google is dabbling in this space as is Apple through its Apps, but no ‘serious’ product has emerged to target the textbook market.

Last week, unable to get to the library in order to pick up “Lobbying for Higher Education” by Contance Cook, I read the e-book via the GMU Library website. I logged in about 12 times and read the entire book. With a Kindle and a e-library membership, perhaps I could have downloaded it for a few weeks and read it comfortable wherever I was, no need for. After two weeks the file might lock or ‘disintegrate’, forcing me to ‘renew’ it.

While it was pretty easy to read the e-book, I had to be online in order to read it. There was no download feature. This is far more limiting than a downloaded book on a personal device (be it Kindle or other device).

For campus entrepreneurs and others interested in campus economics, the question is: will the acquisition of ‘premium’ knowledge via the written word — by the purchase of and rental of physical textbooks —  to go the way of music? Will this fundamentally alter the economics of college expenses?

Once more into the breach campus entrepreneurs.