Union Square Ventures -- Online Education materials
Union Square Ventures Online Education materials October 3, 2012
VIDEOS AND READINGS 1. Online education 2. Traditional universities and debt 3. Primary / secondary schools
1. Online education
Commentary on the potential for online education to change student outcomes The rise of online education by Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/the-rise-of-online- education/2011/09/14/gIQA8e2AdL_story.html o Calls online education a “disruptive innovation” and is optimistic about lower- cost, more-widely-accessible education opportunities. Calls on policymakers to tie funding to outputs (assumedly students’ learning) rather than inputs (e.g. time spent in the classroom.) Bullish on “blended-learning” platforms. Why the internet isn’t going to end college as we know it by Jordan Weissman: http://m.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/07/why-the-internet-isnt-going-to-end- college-as-we-know-it/259378/ o Argues that American-style residential colleges perform functions (signaling, socialization, networking) that online education isn’t likely to replicate College is mostly about human capital, not signaling by Noah Smith: http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/college-is-mostly-about-human-capital.html o Argues US colleges don’t provide signalling or job training; instead argues college gives: 1) motivation (especially by introducing one smart person to other smart people); 2) perspective (defined as “learning the set of possibilities for life”); and 3) human networks (aka social capital.) Why Education Startups Do Not Succeed by the PrepMe founder Avichal Garg: http://avichal.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/why-education-startups-do-not-succeed/
5 October 2012 From docs.google.com/document/d/1DOlGP3mvRYVWZVynKTvhARQrB-S6EN22bVYG6ggIEtg/edit?pli=1# o Argues that education startups: 1) grow slowly over many years; 2) tend to be founded by people who don’t understand their customers (“to well-educated entrepreneurs, education is a quality problem; to consumers, it’s a cost problem”); 3) are successful when they focus on cost-cutting and/or on consumers in Asia Inspiration and Khan Academy by Jon Kolko: http://www.ac4d.com/2012/06/28/inspiration-and-khan-academy/ o Argues that many online learning platforms, including Khan, open access to content but don’t inspire passion in students and so are unlikely to have longer- term impact What the next billion-dollar ed-tech company will look like by Mehdi Maghsoodnia: http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/12/what-the-next-multibillion-dollar-edtech-company- will-look-like/ o Suggests three categories of new ed-tech companies: new, accredited institutions (whose primary customers are not in the US or Europe), new products (e.g. Edmodo, that could/will be acquired by the ed-tech incumbents), and services (e.g. Blackboard, that provide valuable services to incumbents.)
Debating pedagogy online Flipping the classroom requires more than video by Kevin Makice: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/04/flipping-the-classroom/ o Lays out the pros and cons of “flipping the classroom” (having students watch lectures at home and do work in class) without coming to much of a conclusion Learning by Making by Dale Dougherty: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/06/maker_faire_and_science _education_american_kids_should_be_building_rockets_and_robots_not_taking_standar dized_tests_.html o Dougherty, the editor of MAKE magazine, argues that K-12 schools should teach kids how to make things rather than memorize facts for standardized tests At Virginia Tech, computers help solve a math class problem by Daniel de Vise: http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120423/NEWS0107/204230340/ o Between 200-2,000 students take math classes, in the basement of a former department store, with computers and no human instructors. They’ve been doing this since 1997. “Virginia Tech students pass introductory math courses at a higher rate now than 15 years ago, when the Emporium was built.” Khan Academy: the hype and the reality by Valerie Strauss: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/khan-academy-the-hype-and- the-reality/2012/07/22/gJQAuw4J3W_blog.html o “When bad teaching happens in the classroom, it’s a crisis .. when it happens on YouTube, it’s a ‘revolution.’”
Video introductions to the more-prominent companies – useful to understand each entrepreneur’s vision Sal Khan talks about Khan Academy at TED 2011: http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html Sebastian Thrun introduces Udacity at DLD 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=SkneoNrfadk
5 October 2012 From docs.google.com/document/d/1DOlGP3mvRYVWZVynKTvhARQrB-S6EN22bVYG6ggIEtg/edit?pli=1# Daphner Koller talks through what Coursera’s learning at TED 2012: http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.h tml Ben Nelson introducing The Minerva Project at TEDxSF 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEv8g80lcjo Sir Ken Robinson at TED 2010 (part of the inspiration for Skillshare): http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html
More on why these companies were started Anant Argawal, EdX’s president, on the company: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/education/edlife/anant-agarwal-discusses-free- online-courses-offered-by-a-harvard-mit-partnership.html Daphne Koller, Coursera cofounder, on her experience teaching her Stanford AI class online (she announced Coursera a few weeks after this was published): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/daphne-koller-technology-as-a-passport-to- personalized-education.html?pagewanted=all Michael J. Saylor, a successful entrepreneur, decides that education should be free so begins to build out an online curriclum: http://www.saylor.org/about/ and http://www.saylor.org/frequently-asked-questions/#q1
How well are the services working? Recap of the first EdX class at MIT: http://www.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/mitx-edx-first- course-recap-0716.html o 155,000 people registered for the class, 23,000 tried the first problem set (14.8%), 9,000 passed the midterm (5.8%), and 7,157 passed the class (4.6%). Argawal: “if you look at the number in absolute terms, it’s as many students as might take the course in 40 years at MIT.” o 6.002’s follow-up course, 6.003 wasn’t going to be offered online through EdX but the material is on Open Courseware, so students started “6.003z” themselves: http://6003z.amolbhave.in/ and http://www.facebook.com/6003z Stanford School of Education report that suggests online charter schools are not performing well: http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/PA%20State %20Report_20110404_FINAL.pdf
5 October 2012 From docs.google.com/document/d/1DOlGP3mvRYVWZVynKTvhARQrB-S6EN22bVYG6ggIEtg/edit?pli=1# (from page 9 of the report)
2. Traditional universities – a few, higher-level thoughts 1. Have a high-cost, brick-and-mortar business model they seem unlikely to abandon fully. In fact, some universities are expanding their physical presences. (e.g. Cornell into NYC, other universities consider international expansion: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/education/10global.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all) 2. Seem afraid of “being left behind” by online learning, at least in terms of signaling/credentialing. (The socialization component is much harder to replicate.) (e.g. Coursera, EdX, UVA president being ousted and re-instated: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/education/university-of-virginia-reinstates-ousted- president.html?pagewanted=all) 3. Have faculties that like the reach a Coursera class can provide. (e.g. Koller’s NYTimes editorial, Thrun’s DLD talk.) You can imagine a world in which Coursera caters to professors, rather than institutions. 4. Have increasingly competed for students on the basis of non-educational resources (e.g. fancy facilities and extracurricular programs.) This spending has increased as state funding has fallen, pushing up tuition (http://blogs.reuters.com/felix- salmon/2011/11/21/why-tuition-costs-are-rising/)
Information about the University of Phoenix specifically Leveling the Field by Christopher Beha: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/10/0083639 o A Harper’s reporter “goes undercover” at the University of Phoenix and finds out that keeping students engaged is hard. President of the Apollo Group (owners of the University of Phoenix) talks about missing quarterly estimates because of “declining online enrollment” in his earnings call: http://seekingalpha.com/article/18746-apollo-group-ceo-comments-on-the-online- education-model
Debt
5 October 2012 From docs.google.com/document/d/1DOlGP3mvRYVWZVynKTvhARQrB-S6EN22bVYG6ggIEtg/edit?pli=1# American families, on average, paid $20,902 for college in 2011-2012, which is down from $24,097 in 2009-2010.
The mix of funding sources has changed too; in the past four years, parent income and savings has contributed less, while student income and savings and grants and scholarships have contributed more.
5 October 2012 From docs.google.com/document/d/1DOlGP3mvRYVWZVynKTvhARQrB-S6EN22bVYG6ggIEtg/edit?pli=1# Entrepreneurs have noticed students’ increasing debt burdens, especially at non-elite institutions – Mike Karnjanaprakorn listed a few ideas two years ago, including more two-year universities and student-loan repayment reform: http://www.mikekarnj.com/blog/2010/08/11/college-inc/ SoFi, Social Finance Inc., uses alumni to fund student loans: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/sofi-tapping-alumni-to-help-with-student- loans/ Lumni offers human capital contracts (e.g. “Securitize Me!”): http://www.lumni.net/
3. Primary / Secondary schools Private and public schools are increasingly using student test scores to measure teacher performance: NYC: http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/24/teacher-data-reports-are- released/ LA: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/education/10teacher.html?_r=1 DC (and Michelle Rhee): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/us/07rhee.html
5 October 2012 From docs.google.com/document/d/1DOlGP3mvRYVWZVynKTvhARQrB-S6EN22bVYG6ggIEtg/edit?pli=1#