Higher education is going through tremendous changes as it attempts to incorporate effective online courses into its curriculum accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This gives universities the opportunities to improve overall education through better online courseware strategies and even change student acceptance criteria
University leaders are now managing in crises mode and scrambling to offer a valuable education while incorporating new online learning structures, practices and methods. Kristie Ornelas, Senior Director of Cisco Customer Experience discussed this and other pressing issues with Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, during the “The Future of Remote Learning” session at REMOTE: The Connected Faculty Summit.
There are three criteria that successful leaders and professors should embrace when managing during a time of crisis, Galloway said. They need to acknowledge the problem, over communicate during the bad times, and be transparent and honest, he said.
Embrace Digital First
Galloway said the current crises has accelerated the change on college campuses and faculty and university leaders need to acknowledge that and address their approach to education. As much as this is a challenge, it is also an opportunity, he said.
“In terms of academia, it is an opportunity for us to fast forward 10 years and become much more skilled around online learning, which can unlock a ton of value,” Galloway said. “In the immediate term, don’t look at digital or online training as a placeholder, but as an opportunity to move where most industries have moved, which is multi-channel. We have not developed the digital competence, so I think we need to start thinking about digital first as opposed to some placeholder that gets us through or back to normal, which is in-person classes. I think education needs to change fundamentally in terms of how we deliver value,” he said.
The idea of online courses for Universities is not a new concept. Higher education facilities have been incorporating online learning into their curriculum for years. However, COVID-19 greatly accelerated that process, Galloway said.
He cited retail sales as a prime example. In 2000, retail online sales were 1 percent of the business and increasing at the rate of about 1 percent a year. In March 2020 it was at about 18 percent and now it is at 28 percent, he said adding that we experienced about a decade’s worth of growth in just a few months.
“COVID-19 is more of an accelerant pulling the future forward as opposed to a change agent,” Galloway said. As a result, Galloway is encouraging all leaders of businesses and universities to evaluate their two to three biggest trends and fast forward them ten years in terms of capital allocation, people recruiting, decisions around marketing mix.
Massive Disruption Coming
COVID-19 is causing a complete overhaul of the higher education system. And while there are tremendous challenges to overcome for instructors to change their teaching methods, there are also opportunities to better the education and reach more students.
“I think w are in the mist of the same type of disruption that has happened to every other industry where the consumption of the product is largely considered shoulder-to-shoulder whether it is sports, restaurant, hospitality or travel,” Galloway said. “I think massive disruption is coming. We have raised our prices faster than inflation for the last 30 years. The gross margin dollars are extraordinary some instances.”
For instance. Galloway says if he teaches 400 kids in the fall at $7,000 a piece that is $2.8 million or approximately $240,000 per class and most of that dept is straddled on young people. This prohibits them to form households or cannot get married as soon as they would like so they are risk adverse and that is bad for the future of the economy, he said.
“So on a lot of levels, education has kind of had this coming, he said adding that international students—which made up 12 percent of most student bodies but represent 25 percent of the cash flow—may not come back causing a type of “perform storm” scenario,” he said.
Campus Closures
For the most part, Galloway does not see campuses fully opening this Fall. Students are terrible at social distancing and one of the main reasons they go away to any college to not distance. Plus, there are many college buildings where the windows don’t open and the filtration systems are not good, which will just further prevent openings, he said.
“I think we are deluding ourselves believing campuses are going to open in any form at September 1. And I believe unfortunately our inability to right size our costs like every other industry has put us in a weird spot where we are making these bold strident statements that we have a national obligation to open the universities,” Galloway said. “No, we don’t. We have an obligation to figure out a way to deliver education and certification for a lower cost.”
Galloway then went on to discuss how through online learning universities can then embrace higher acceptance rates to give more students educational choices. He also said he would like to see the financial model change where there is an increase in funding to schools as well as technology adoption but a decrease in school spending on administration in an effort to lower per student tuition costs.