“I Think Higher Education Is Just On The Edge Of The Crevasse”

Jeff Howe of Wired has a new interview with the The Innovator’s Dilemma author Clayton Christensen. A passage about the industries (no surprises, really) most prone to the creative disturbance of our Digital Age:

“Jeff Howe:

If you had to list some industries right now that are either in a state of disruptive crisis or will be soon, what would they be?

Clayton Christensen:  

Journalism, certainly, and publishing broadly. Anything supported by advertising. That all of this is being disrupted is now beyond question. And then I think higher education is just on the edge of the crevasse. Generally, universities are doing very well financially, so they don’t feel from the data that their world is going to collapse. But I think even five years from now these enterprises are going to be in real trouble.

Jeff Howe: 

Why is higher education vulnerable?

Clayton Christensen

The availability of online learning. It will take root in its simplest applications, then just get better and better. You know, Harvard Business School doesn’t teach accounting anymore, because there’s a guy out of BYU whose online accounting course is so good. He is extraordinary, and our accounting faculty, on average, is average.

Jeff Howe: 

What happens to all our institutions of advanced learning?

Clayton Christensen

Some will survive. Most will evolve hybrid models, in which universities license some courses from an online provider like Coursera but then provide more-specialized courses in person. Hybrids are actually a principle regardless of industry. If you want to use a new technology in a mainstream existing market, it has to be a hybrid. It’s like the electric car. If you want to have a viable electric car, you have to ask if there is a market where the customers want a car that won’t go far or fast. The answer is, parents of teenagers would love to put their teens in a car that won’t go far or fast. Little by little, the technology will emerge to take it on longer trips. But if you want to have this new technology employed on the California freeways right now, it has to be a hybrid like a Prius, where you take the best of the old with the best of the new.” (Thanks Browser.)

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