This column by Seth Godin in Medium is worth reading: ‘“Will this be on the test?” Rethinking online education“. Seth Godin is an acclaimed marketing guru who we have often quoted in this blog. He is also a founder of what he calls an alternative MBA or altMBA. His educational approaches in this program are widely different from conventional higher education, and he explains why there are dramatically more effective – and why MooCs are not so successful.
Traditional higher education is defined by institutions: “large universities that have built their institutions around lectures, tests and accreditation. So have many internal training functions.” This is why the main question is not whether one learns useful things, but whether it will be on the test as the only objective is to pass.
Online learning developed by universities is just a transfer into the online space of universities’ basic assumptions, which don’t really work. This explains why after an initial fervor for MooC, we find out now that most participants lack engagement and 99% of students don’t finish the courses.
Seth Godin’s proposal, executed in his acclaimed altMBA program is: “At its core: enrollment, not tests. Experiences not media consumption. Peer to peer, not top down“. This has been the foundation for a very successful program for executives. Those principles could be used for the re-foundation of higher education in the Collaborative Age.
