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Will MOOCs force colleges to act more like consumer marketing companies? And other thoughts about the future of education
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June 2013
Will MOOCs force colleges to act more like consumer marketing companies? And other thoughts about the future of education
MOOCs are challenging the existing education model, but are they really going to displace your school?
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MOOCs are disruptive in their own right. They are pushing on traditional education models and forcing us to question the elements involved in education.
Education is becoming disaggregated. MOOCs have pulled apart the courses that make up a program or major. They are literally breaking down the silos that have kept knowledge locked up within institutions.
It’s important to not become too myopic and focus on MOOCs as the future of education. But we can use the emergence of MOOCs to help us understand how disaggregation will change the overall education system and what this means for the future. Where do MOOCs belong in the education system? How does their existence truly affect the
system? How will the roles of other players evolve? Are elite schools giving away the least valuable product in their portfolio? How strong are our mental models concerning education? For example, would you hire someone
who said they were self taught via MOOCs? Is it more likely that MOOCs will better serve another purpose? For example, a storefront for
colleges or free training for employees.
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What is happening in education is not unlike what has happened in many other industries.
Take the music industry for example.
It’s very easy to say that Coursera, EdX or Udacity (to name the primary players) are very similar to iTunes.
Where iTunes broke up the albums and made it easy to digitally purchase, these MOOCs have created a service where students can easily mix and match courses, instead of being forced to buy courses they don’t really want or need.
Is higher education headed down the same path as the music industry?
If so, what does your school need to do in order to survive?
Let’s explore how this hypothetical, yet very possible, world could look like.
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What if higher education was like the music industry?
The labels
The rock stars
The product
The venues
The distribution
Professor
Courses
The University
SONY
The fanStudent
Lecture halls
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Mental models will be challenged…
What if higher education institutions acted more like traditional corporations? Their primary focus would include strategy, branding, marketing, distribution, meeting KPIs and maximizing ROIs.
What if professors were the creatives responsible for product development?
What type of innovative products would be born out of this structure?
What if campuses became venues for visiting professors? Opening acts could be performed by local professors.
Could distribution players augment this structure by creating playlists, subscription services or enabling fans to connect?
How will the needs of students be better served by this world? Will courses be more exciting and engaging as professors compete to reach #1 status?
Professor
Courses
The University
Student
Lecture halls
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“I’m going to Harvard because of the lectures!” Said no one ever.
Our future scenario ignores the complexities our education system, like accreditations, credentials and the high costs involved with purchasing education. But what our simplistic structure does highlight is an ecosystem where success is ultimately determined by what resonates most with consumers.
While MOOCs are very new on the education scene, it is becoming evident that they are probably not the most effective way for students to learn. Very few students finish a course, most drop out before the first test. Those that complete a course are not exactly the intended target. Most are the lifelong learners or the already educated.
So why aren’t financially strapped students who do not live close to elite schools taking advantage of MOOCs? While many hypotheses exist, a significant reason is we understand little about students and therefore we are not developing effective education products.
Are MOOCs ignoring students’ core needs?
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What do we really know about students?
One would think that the emergence of MOOCs, whose survival will be dependent on successful student engagements, would bring to the forefront a need for greater focus on students and their core needs, but this appears to be absent from most discussions. Students are changing and their choices are expanding; understanding their “customers” will help any school better address their needs and target them.
The student experience
How do students choose their education path? What really gets them off-track? Where are the pain points? Do emerging technologies make it easier or harder?
Student needs
What do students consider table stakes, nice to haves, need to haves?
Messaging
What do students know about colleges before attending them? How do they differentiate their options? What are their perceptions about the different schools?
Motivation
How do they motivate themselves? What keeps them motivated? What keeps them engaged?
Student segments
Besides segmenting students based on GPA, test scores or demographics, what are similar attitudes and behaviors groups of students share?
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Is it time for colleges to think of themselves as a consumer marketing company?
Rushing into the MOOC space will not protect a school from failure.
Not all students want to learn online. Not all want to share a class with 30,000 other students. Not all students want a DIY “degree.”
Schools need to better understand who the are targeting.
Do they really want to be all things to all students? Or are they better off serving a niche community.
Looking at their core competencies and their portfolio can help determine who they target and how they want to attract them. Maybe this means that more schools need to specialize or maybe they need to market differently or maybe innovate new products beyond simply going online.
A Brand Development and Marketing Insight Consultancy
Brian Kushnir: [email protected] Leng Loh: [email protected] van der Pool: [email protected]
