For example, in an average HBS finance class you will get input from former PE guys on how to actually valuate a company, the potential pitfalls and what is important to remember. In a global economy class (BGIE) you can hear from bankers who worked in Europe on how they faced the global economic crisis.
This creates high barriers to replicate the HBS model online. I'm not sure what the UX will be for replicating this discussion setting, and invoking individuals to share from their experience. How do you validate the quality of the comments? how do you highlight the takeaways in a situation where there is no one right answer? These are all though issues to solve, and I'm glad HBS is actively tackling it. I'm looking forward to seeing if they succeed.
I don't argue that HBS provides all of what you mentioned, but I do argue that many colleges provide the same.
> I'm not sure what the UX will be for replicating this discussion setting, and invoking individuals to share from their experience. How do you validate the quality of the comments?
"Then a box pops up on the screen with the words “Cold Call.” The student has 30 seconds to a few minutes to type a response to a question and is then prodded to assess comments made by other students. Eventually there is a multiple-choice quiz to gauge mastery of the concept."
"He unveiled the existence of a studio, built in collaboration with Boston’s public television station, that allows a professor to stand in a pit before a horseshoe of 60 digital “tiles,” or high-definition screens with the live images and voices of geographically dispersed participants."
> These are all though issues to solve, and I'm glad HBS is actively tackling it. I'm looking forward to seeing if they succeed.
Did you read the whole article, or stop in the middle?
Case based method sounds like a much better idea than wasting time listening to a lecture. I think what they mention in the article is a good start.
The type of disruption faced by Harvard and other universities applies not only to that industry but to many other, perhaps most, industries.
Maybe instead of worrying so much about saving their own asses, some of these overpaid Harvard geniuses could come up with an idea or two about how to adjust our underlying "economic" structures to align with new technological realities.
By the way, did you ask those "former PE guys" how they actually valuated WhatsApp? Did you ask the bankers who worked in Europe what they did to fix the "economic" structure so that the global "economic" crisis would not threaten the physical health and well-being of so many people?
I'm not sure whether bricks-and-mortar universities or pure-online companies like Coursera are better positioned to transition to this hybrid approach. Universities already have it, but at a price point and class size more similar to a full on-campus program than a fully online program. They already have classrooms and TAs, but they have a lot of overhead. Online companies may actually be in a better position to figure out how to scale courses with an offline component across the country while keeping costs reasonable.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2014/05/28/harvar...
Harvard's model is clever because they create perceived value for customers through an affiliated brand without tarnishing the brand itself.
I'm sure they give a reasonable introduction to the material, but that's not how they profile themselves at all.
It's an inverted lemon market. Instead of the lowest price winning, it's the highest price that still generates a just large enough elitist club. But the product is not education, the product is the elitist club.
Exactly what you'd expect for the business side of companies. These people are as suitable for management as high heels are for walking, in the same way.
I'm a computer scientist by training, and found that my experience helps me excel in the classroom, rather than serve as a burden. Classmates do appreciate the technological perspective, and former Microsoft, Google, Apple and startup employees do a great job of giving that perspective in Entrepreneurship, operations and technology classes. Engineers are highly regarded at the school...
Some online education platform could very well buy out some great professors or better yet...identify the newcomers and get them on board.
Research and teaching is still somewhat tightly coupled so I'm curious to see when/if some of the online course providers will opt to sponsor or create their own open access type journals.
For business and IT, I think the market for continued learning is currently more attractive than the typical university market. I'd like to rent a Porter for my company to update them on interesting topics 3x a year.
Even if the case based methodology cannot be brought online, just recording the lectures and putting it up will benefit millions online. This won't really take away from the "value" of a HBS stamp because it is not certified and because you don't have access to the network and the classroom experience that students who attend the traditional program have.
This way you are accomplishing your mission of making the best education accessible to anyone in the world, which is what defines a truly great university. In my book, Stanford and MIT are the real rockstars because of the approach they've taken in this area.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7826976
If the value of universities for most people is vocational training, that will be far more efficiently accomplished through online courses.
