Personalised Learning - Model T or Smart Car?

"You can have any sort of learning provided its based on lectures on a campus and involves lots of exams" Henry T Fraud.

But what if, and humour me here, what if today's learners want flexibility, individual learning journeys, practical hands-on learning, learning at their own speed and assessment when they are ready?  What if they want a Smart Car that they helped to design, rather than the mass-produced, jelly mould experience of the "Model T" University?

Well, it wouldn't work would it?  It wouldn't be practical, the resources needed are not available, the professors (bless them) would have to change...It would be the end of civilisation as we know it.

Except that many corporate universities, catering, it must be said, for their paymasters, have done just that.

Now, what's that about Higher Education being a market?

Student Value for Money and Ice Cream

How on earth can Business Schools offer Value for Money (VfM) to students when the "Money" part of VfM is dictated by government and the "Value" part is restricted by their host Universities syphoning off Business School surpluses to fund very important and vital subject areas that, frankly, nobody wants to study?

INSIDE THE MAGNIFICENT (PRIVATE) FRANKFURT SCHOOL OF FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT

VfM is a market-based concept in the eyes not only of consumers but of economists.  In the way that economists love, it is given a different terminology - Benefit.  To be precise, Marginal Benefit - the satisfaction derived by ONE PERSON from consuming ONE MORE UNIT of the product/service.  Like Ice Cream, however, satisfaction typically reduces after the second, third....seventh unit.  Typically, however, the average student only "consumes" ONE undergraduate degree...

Much to the frustration of economists, "satisfaction" is in the eye of the individual consumer.  Who can tell what satisfaction individuals get from attending University?  Do economic data tell us about how happy people are?  Apparently not as accurately as downloading behaviour on such sites as Spotify.

So, can data actually tell us how satisfied students are?

• The NSS attempts this but there are so many methodological issues with its execution and the clear benefits of HE for the individual are certainly not known in the final year of study.
• Graduate Employment could be an indicator but many will be "satisfied" NOT working for a bean counting factory and so will not qualify as having a "graduate role".

And, I hear you say, what about "social benefit"?  the benefit derived by society in supporting, mainly through taxation, a high quality education sector.  Social benefit is a feature of market failure as consumers are less willing to pay for benefits that they do not feel directly.  We know this because so many students do not wish to pay with their time to study or read unless it's going to be on the exam.

Ah, wait, here's a radical thought - why not stop thinking of Universities as corporate businesses with consumers seeking VfM and suppliers seeking profit by squeezing costs at the expense of quality?

The bridge - a satisfaction survey

Engineering standards judge the quality of design and function, the strength and safety aspects of the bridge - BEFORE the bridge is built.  Once constructed, the bridge is tested to ensure it meets or exceeds key standards. The bridge can then be built, commissioned and used by all those wishing to cross to the other side. Periodically, the bridge is inspected. Maintenance and remedial and updating actions are taken.  This ensures fitness for purpose and safety.

SO, HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT CROSSING THE SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE?

In history, bridges were provided from the public purse but, increasingly they are built by private organisations, granted time constrained monopolies to collect fees.  Fees can be fixed by governments so that they are not seen to be extortionate.

Rarely, if ever, is the fitness of the bridge judged by the experience of those crossing it or the benefits they accrue once they reach the other side.

Why is it so different in Higher Education?

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen

Copenhagen Business School was my 15th different Business School visit in the last 12 months - quite a feat as most of my job is undertaken by video conferencing!  CBS is an excellent School and particularly gets my seal of approval (yes, I know, they didn't ask for it nor do they want it, really).

So what does a School need to do to earn this unsolicited accolade?  Let me tell you...

THE LITTLE MERMAID WITHOUT THE DISTRACTIONS OF RIVER TRAFFIC AND  HORDES OF TOURISTS

My focus here is not the Business School as an entity but as a physical presence - perhaps a building or a series of spaces. So, in my view, a Business School that is fit for purpose in today's environment should have the following features:

• Space

That's it??

Well, of course, there's different types of space.  And here's a few I've seen on my travels:

• Teaching space - flexible
• Social space - everywhere
• Quiet space - in unexpected places
• Collaborative space - with resources to facilitate e-collaboration and F2F
• Flexible space - teaching
• Private space - but few closed doors
• Technical space - for video, on-line, webinar - and all fully supported
• Outer space - space outside that is served by wi-fi
• Thinking space - possibly the same as quiet space but that's just me...
• Meeting space - almost any of the above
• Bookable space - when certainty is needed
• Comfortable space - including standing space
• Sleeping space...

Of course, for its stakeholders, there will be different priorities.  Those of space efficiency, space to hide, space to meet and space to work are some of the different top priorities of key players.

And my favourite of all? - well, the last one I have visited as it adds to my picture of  the ideal Business School.

There's Virtual Gold in them thar' hills!

The creators and propagators of such cyber-currencies as: BITCOIN, LITECOIN, ETHEREUM, ZCASH, DASH... owe a lot to Higher Education. Not because the question "What is money" is a very common one that basic economics addresses but because Academics and Universities have been using a virtual currency for many years.

PICTURE BY XIANG GAO VIA UNSPLASH

The currency? Academic Goodwill.

Let us rehearse the properties of money by comparing cash with academic goodwill, defined here as that warm glow of satisfaction following a successful PhD examination at (obviously) a different University to your own.  The warm glow is often extended during the period between the viva examination and receipt of the Princely sum of (as much as ) £200 for almost a week of your time:

Quality	Money	Academic Goodwill
a medium of exchange	Cash is generally accepted by most in society – except bus drivers (exact change please) and internet retailers (that’s a USB port, not a coin slot grandma…) It is divisible, easily recognisable and now fully washable.	PhD examination can be a series of bi-lateral exchanges between colleagues in cognate areas of study.  You pass my student and I’ll pass yours.
a liquid store of value	Apart from notes going out of circulation in order to issue currency with pictures of the Duchess formerly known as Megan Markle on the obverse, cash retains its nominal value and is easily turned into, well, cash.	If that liquid is Scotch or Gin then the External PhD Examiner is an excellent storage vessel.  Some academics have a very limited capacity before they begin to spout nonsense, others show no difference in this capacity even after a few swift ones.
a unit of account	We do tend to value what we can measure and even more so if that measurement unit has a £, $ or € sign.	The number of PhD supervisions and even examinations on an academic CV can often be used as evidence of scholarship and reputation for such vaguely defined areas like promotion criteria.
a standard of deferred payments	Net Present Values reflect the value to the lender of payment deferment.  Lenders give up current liquidity for a price (interest).	Storing up goodwill here on earth may make a nice insertion into your obituary in the Times Higher.  There’s no longer deferment than that…

The price for sheep

A few years ago a ferry company, operating in the Western Isles of Scotland, thought to encourage local farmers to take their sheep to market via ferry by heavily discounting the price of a crossing if sheep were transported.

Farmers enjoyed this boon but when it came to taking a holiday with their families they would have to pay full price for the crossing.

Scottish farmers are amongst the canniest in the world and so, when it came time to load up the family car for a holiday on the mainland, they also loaded one sheep.  The price for the crossing was at the discounted price - they were transporting a sheep, after all.  Each sheep was left with a friend on the mainland and transported back home when the holiday was over.

The ferry company abandoned its offer...

A few years ago a well known University, operating in the USA, thought to encourage prospective students to take up degrees by offering FREE courses on the World Wide Web.

Massive numbers of On-Line students enjoyed this boon, but when it came to taking up a full degree, they would have to pay full price.  Few were either prepared or even able to do this.

On-Line students are amongst the canniest in the world and so, when it came time to use their MOOC studies to populate their CVs with the results of their studies at Stanford, Harvard and the like, they argued that employers should take note of their learning, their skills and their on-line alma mater.  It mattered not that they had studied for free and had not obtained a specific certificate.

Please make up your own ending to this story...

Hard won freedoms in Kyiv

Never underestimate the freedom most of us have to moan about "the system".  This entire blog is an example of my own mild frustration but also of a genuine hope that those with some vision will take lessons and build on them.

This was my hope when I revisited Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.  I was scheduled to give a seminar on Global Quality Standards in Business Education and Innovation in Assessment Design.  But earlier in the week I visited parts of Kyiv City Centre and saw the impromptu memorials to the ordinary Ukrainians shot by snipers as they protested against corruption in High Office during the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014.

MEMORIALS TO OVER 100 PROTESTERS SHOT FOR PROTESTING IN 2014

One of the first rules of presentation is to know your audience.  This consideration affected me greatly as I was advising educational "revolution" to an audience who knew the real cost of rocking the national boat.

I do hope that that the innovation and revolution I propose is not too racy for the educational establishment, that it is seen to be a plea for a focus on learning, rather than on teaching, and that it centres on student engagement rather than simple student attendance at lectures.

From a managerial viewpoint, too, a focus on student learning can (not always) but can result in less resource being devoted to "contact time".  The difference being that "contact time" is richer and more challenging and enjoyable for everyone.

Now just who would have benefit in maintaining the status quo and looking backwards instead of forwards as the Ukrainian authorities did in 2014?