Union Square Ventures Online Education Materials

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

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#