Deseret News | Universities will be 'irrelevant' by 2020, Y. professor says

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Universities will be 'irrelevant' by 2020, Y. professor says

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websta | 10:21 a.m. April 28, 2009

For the video, you could go to Google video and search for something like, say, 2855786550703993653. Just a thought.

websta | 10:35 a.m. April 28, 2009

David, thank you for your insightful thoughts. I am a BYU alum, MA in Humanities from a distance learning program, who worked 13 years in web development for a major university back east before striking off on my own media company. We ended up homeschooling our children. I have been disappointed watching BYU scale back its once-innovative home study program in favor of residency requirements (which is, for example, the reason my wife did not finish her degree and the reason our children have no plans to attend BYU either). I hope that you will successfully spark some innovation at BYU, and elsewhere, and help universities catch up to the rapidly changing world around them. Ten years ago I sat in a statewide distance learning conference held on my campus while impassioned educators argued for non-change, that all they needed was evolution, not revolution, etc. And I watched the school slowly descend into irrelevance, endless bickering over territory, and fended off the oppressive struggle to somehow become the least productive each staff person/department/college could possibly become. It was a disservice to the students, staff and our own future. Thank you.

BFuniv Rector | 10:24 p.m. April 29, 2009

I think brick and mortar universities are where leather bound encyclopedias were two decades ago; highly respected - but without an acceptable survival strategy for the emerging Netcohort age.

Comments continue below

glenmichael | 8:45 a.m. May 3, 2009

Comments from Mr. Wiley are only half right ( or half wrong ). Many a Uni has had to go back to blended learning or transnational ( foreign campus ) to re-invent themselves and stay relevant and maintain prestige. A purely digital solution is unrealistic. Performance needs peer feedback ( not polite online ) but face to face comparisons with students and a mentor or teacher. Also, most irrelevant dated learning that could not be applied to work was "training" from past knowlege, and couldn't not equip you with thinking on your feet. Education is about becoming literate and getting good at reasoning and problem solving.. not about learning software skills which would have served you if they hadn't been outdated by your senior year. Education is more than training.University context ( a part from the playground aspect ) should be demanding competent levels of writing and reading and problem solving, alone and with groups, in classes and online. That's the way you learn to cope with whatever job you end up getting and are able to move up.

Future lies in Online Unis | 7:40 p.m. May 10, 2009

Many thanks for your insightful thinking. In today's fast changing world full of unpredented challenges online learning offers great convinience to any aspiring learner be it a mum, dad,child and single persons. You can work from anywhere convinient and you also serve on serve on travel costs and time.

It's all needed | 12:53 p.m. May 13, 2009

Open source in software and knowledge is great. However, how do we sort through it all? We have to have someone to rely on; we'll always need experts. And, experts have to make a living. How is it that there will be all this motivation to have the culmination of all your efforts in some field of knowledge simply given away to everyone for nothing? If you have other sources of income and are liberally (not in the political sense) motivated, I can see it happening. But not with everyone. Mr. Wiley gives his time for free to the online high school. He did something similar at USU. But all the while, he was paid a salary to meet at least his basic needs through institutions who, you guessed it, charge to teach people. While social networking is here to stay, the jury is not out folks on how these sites make a sustainable and profitable income. The coming few years will see even more upheaval in how all this free information is served up to you and me. Meaning, the wizards behind the curtain will eventually have to make a return on investment.

JM | 10:03 a.m. May 14, 2009

I agree with the thought that Universities etc. need to adopt the new technologies available and old school mentalities will decrease value.

With the economy and many universities and students who attend them or would like to. Their failure to adopt cost saving measures via using tech and open source information to reduce expenses to students and schools will drive students out of market or into debt.

Is that math book really worth $300 then irrelevant the next year because of one update, think Kindle's.

While yes the away from parents and the on site relationship social of Universities are a building factor, there are many in a situation that can not afford room and board so streaming class lectures via live or recorded would allow distance learning but also allow interaction with the instructors and class - think ustream, twitter, online screen shares w/chat.

Plus todays youth uses these technologies in their daily lives but business's do as well so by avoiding the adoption is a kin to going to the grocery store on a horse.

Anonymous | 9:07 a.m. May 18, 2009

Academic institutions should be technologically able to meet the needs of their future audience. As we migrate through different generations, we must be able to adapt curriculum to meet diverse learning styles. If we can speculate that traditional classrooms and some aspects of online learning will dissipate into self learning, should we put our energy into improving online social networks to guide our students through the degree process? Should or Will we continue to use faculty involvement is the question. Academic institutions will have to get this right if education will be value added for the learner. Get ready! Get focused...for future learning!

Stevio | 4:17 p.m. June 10, 2009

How backwards is the last statement/paragraph...

"But BYU, he notes, might be a special case. Students will likely still flock there for the two extra benefits the school offers: a religious education and the chance to meet and marry an LDS Church member."

Ok, same with religious education, why wont that work online. And to "meet and marry an LDS", hmm, once again, I'm sure there are plenty of LDS dating sites out there.

Re: Stevio | 8:31 p.m. June 10, 2009

Wiley cares about BYU but no other university's financial succuess.

Rob P | 10:40 a.m. July 3, 2009

"Peter Drucker's bleak view of the future of universities and his optimism about the emerging elearning paradigm is now widely known:

[T]hirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book. Do you realize that the cost of higher education has risen as fast as the cost of health care?... Such totally uncontrollable expenditures, without any visible improvement in either the content or the quality of education, means that the system is rapidly becoming untenable. Higher education is in deep crisis... Already we are beginning to deliver more lectures and classes off campus via satellite or two-way video at a fraction of the cost. The college won't survive as a residential institution. (Forbes, March 10, 1997"

lyndellnm | 4:47 p.m. July 15, 2009

This is an interesting debate. OK, so the digital age means that the proliferation of information becomes easier and, perhaps, more accessible to all. Articles, texts, and even recordings of lectures.

But hold on for a minute, you don't get a University qualification just by showing up and listening to lectures, or just by reading a whole pile of prescribed texts. Someone has to assess you, through exams, assignments, practical tests, and so on - to say that you have acquired knowledge and can apply it to a predetermined standard.

Many professions rely on this standard being met. Do you want to be treated by a doctor that doesn't have a University qualification, but says he knows what he's doing because he's read Wikipedia, or maybe downloaded some medicine lectures?

Change in how universities operate in the digital age is certain. Their demise is not.

Skeeter | 6:11 a.m. July 16, 2009

"The video quotes educators from years gone by who were alarmed that chalk, pencils, ballpoint pens and calculators would make students lazy and stupid"

And they were right!

charles darwin | 4:16 p.m. July 19, 2009

college sell Admit ticket to classs

yes, come to class

no, cannot come to class...

yes-no coming to class.

Knowledge belongs to the world: All people of the earth.

If we can Video the dog, cat, fish snakes: We can of course tape a professor giving a class on math, science.

Digital courses, digital colleges can be accesss by anyone, anytime anywhere, any computer. by all people of the earth.

LeeG | 7:53 p.m. Aug. 3, 2009

Prof. Wiley, while so familiar with academia, is missing the point. People do NOT go to college, paying the tuition and fees, spending the time in class and on homework & projects, reading the required texts and taking the required tests, to gain knowledge. They do it to gain credentials: an acknowledgement, recognized by the world at large, of a certain level of competence within a certain field of study. THAT’S what an associates, or bachelors, or doctoral degree represents.

People incur that cost in time and treasure for a reason. A school board looking to hire a history teacher wants to be sure the individual has some knowledge of history. I suggest that a BS from State University will get far more respect than hundreds of hours watching the History Channel, even if it could be documented.

If it is only ‘knowledge’ that anyone seeks, they can find that readily, in a Public Library, in Adult Ed classes offered by most school districts, on the Internet, at public lectures commonly given at universities, at bookstores, and at many, many other venues.

Frank | 10:50 p.m. Sept. 12, 2009

Nothing will replace personal instruction. Especially when it comes to the arts. English teachers are worthless as they only want to talk about symbolism. Math professors are needed because some of those concepts are hard to wrap your head around. But as far as music, art, graphics, drama, ect... these are things that would be hard pressed to be taught over the web.

Besides, Pheonix online doesn't hold the same clout as any other university.

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