“We’re moving very quickly to what we like to say is a ‘learning company,’” McGraw-Hill’s Waterhouse said in October.
In some ways, the open education movement has been a reaction to these changes in the industry.
If a non-profit university feels the need to out-source course materials, why not do it in a way that’s in-line with the more philosophically open ideals of academia?
But again, the question of quality crops up, and if the goal is to provide quality material at a cheaper price, there is already an entire industry with decades of proven experience anxious to get more involved with student outcomes.
That’s without considering the for-profit massive open online course (MOOC) platforms that are also trying to push into the space.
“Business-institutional partnerships and conversations are essential if we want graduates to be ready for work when they are ready to graduate,” Wagner said. “We need to ask the question of whether it is okay for an institution to do an average job of offering an introductory course if it is possible to get an excellent version of the same course from a commercial provider for a lower cost.”
Follow Jake New on Twitter at @eCN_Jake.
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