Dive Summary:
- Blackboard co-founder and online education pioneer Michael Chasen spoke at Startup Festival in Montreal Wednesday, stating his belief that MOOCs were the biggest education disrupter since colleges and universities first went online.
- MOOC providers like Udemy and Coursera have a chance to flip everything on its head, Chasen said, noting that it reminded him of the changes going on at colleges and universities when he first started Blackboard.
- Chasen said that MOOCs would add much-needed competition to the education industry, benefitting students by putting extreme downward price pressure on school, but hurting publishers—though he added that Ivy League schools and top educational institutions will always have a special place.
From the article:
... According to Chasen, he’s heard often that education institutions are now struggling with demand, especially in fast-growing markets like China. Schools there literally can’t build enough buildings to put people in their colleges, he said, and are trying to figure out how to handle issues like students that are sometimes seven hours away from their nearest physical campus. Online education means you can scale immensely without worrying about growing the physical plant and those costs, and it also means students need only a phone to participate, lowering costs immensely. ...