what happened to this edtech giant? https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2019/08/29/many-people-saw-the-crash-of-a-billion-dollar-edtech-company-coming/#5f0821361274
Cousera and Edx are replacing U2. We still haven't seen the cost reduction. My opnion is that degrees my Cousera and Edx should never be more than $10k
Interesting. I was contacted by a company that works with MIT Sloan Short Course Team at GetSmarter. They offered a certificate in AI. The cost was in thousands I think close to 4 K. I found on EDX IE program from Columbia University that cost much less Certificate for $325 USD, significantly less and offered more classes on the subject. https://www.edx.org/course/artificial-intelligence-ai
new info https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-education/2019/09/11/online-education-giant-2u-to-disclose-more-data-476487
I am in a 2U program and I am not sure exactly what 2U does other than the front side employees and employees along the way that I have meetings with to check in on my progress. As the article points out, if 2U is primarily marketing on the front end most of these universities don't have that problem so it may have to adapt. There is a 2U LMS but it is in "migration" so we only use it for maybe 5 - 10% of the program and is primarily for submitting assignments for grade and handling the grading system and for announcements. Most of the course work, meetings, etc. are external. Classes are taught by USC employees, librarians and doctoral support is from USC employees that support all programs. I will say this is the most impactful, highest quality learning environment, and most supportive program I have ever been in but it is primarily because of the networks/systems that USC has in place regardless of what program you are in. Though inconvenient, the cohort synchronous class model is vital and I wish I had found similar programs a decade ago.
I think universities should get together and form their own alliance for online education. Basically economizing on the middleman, the OPM. They can still compete on price and quality, but there will be a one-stop exchange for online education. Also, there could be easy movement of students on the exchange taking courses from the members of the alliance as part of the degree program. I do not mind the profit motive of OPM, but that cost is pass on to the students, so it is a not a win for students. The wins are for the OPMs and the universities. . At the moment OPMs are not adding any value to the students, do add value to institution who do not have to bother about adverting etc.
It still astonished me how they closed many of their original contracts. To a great extent, it just seems as if they leveraged the blind enthusiasm of a venture capital backed tech company that self labels as a disruptor. The combination of incredible sales skills and bewildering due diligence, generally leads to a crash.
One of the important things schools get out of OPMs is that they don't have anywhere near as much up front cost, because OPMs have VC funding and can front all the money required. That's something that would be difficult to replicate through a consortium. But it doesn't explain why wealthy institutions use OPMs, which still perplexes me.