Post on 30-May-2020
Education as Platform Chris Dellarocas Professor of Information Systems Director, Digital Learning Initiative Boston University dell@bu.edu
Today’s educational institutions are platforms of bundled services
…but closed and full of restrictions
University
Students Teachers
Employers Businesses
States
Other Universities
Value Money
Technological innovation is about to crack these platforms open
Educational Platform
Students Teachers
Employers Businesses
States
Other Platforms
Value Money
Some (speculative) thoughts of what this might lead to
1. The higher-ed bundle will be broken up
• Learning • Socialization • Peer network • Credentialing
• Each component will potentially be offered by a different entity – or even a different platform
2. Degrees and courses will be unbundled and personalized
• Students will be able to mix and match learning resources at the level of a single video clip and assignment
• Many different players will curate materials to produce custom “courses,” “programs” and “degrees”
• Reputation mechanisms will help identify quality
• A repository of best-of-breed learning content will emerge
3. The role of teacher will diversify
• Creators of content • Curators of content • Tutors • Life coaches
• Professional vs. amateur • “Rock stars” vs. long tail
4. Skills will emerge as an important currency
• Students will customize their learning so as to master combinations of skills as opposed to pursuing generic “majors”
• Employers will similarly use skill sets to specify their needs in a more precise manner
• Grades are dead, long live competency-certificates (e.g. badges)
5. Businesses and states will play a much more active role
• In addition to recruiting…
• Define (and subsidize?) skill requirements
• Design specialized curricula
• Perform own testing and credentialing
• Integrate experiential learning into their business processes
6. Credentialing will emerge as a separate market
• Increased skill-level credentialing
• Using a combination or course-based and non-course-based data
• Competition for effective (i.e. “predictive”) credentials
• Emergence of a predictive analytics market (“moneyball” for all sorts of career paths)
7. The availability of big data will impact every player
• Metrics of quality and ROI will be developed at all levels – Student learning – Professor performance – Socialization
effectiveness – Skill sets that “work” – Career outcomes – …
What will all this mean?
• Industry-level efficiencies • Better matching of different sides
Educational Platform
Students Teachers
Employers Businesses
States
Other Platforms
Value
Money
The role of the University in this new world?
• Like a newspaper in the world of Google
• Still relevant but not the main or only way to get the news
• Must “focus on what it does best and link to the rest” (as Jeff Jarvis would say)
• Must adapt as a part of a richer ecosystem
Conclusions
• Educational institutions are already platforms
• Technology promises a substantial opening up of educational platforms
• The principles of platform theory promise an exciting ride ahead