arena-competitors-traditional

5 arenas that are traditional higher ed’s most worthy competitors


These disruptive arenas will directly compete with traditional institutions—and here’s why

arena-competitors-traditional You’ve heard about MOOCs, online platforms, and other technologies like digital credentialing shaking up traditional offerings from higher education institutions, but where is it all coming from?

According to a new brief by Deloitte University Press, there are five distinct economic and social sectors that are generating the pathways, and technologies to leverage those pathways, in direct competition to traditional postsecondary education.

And it’s these five arenas that have listened the most to the needs of today’s 21st Century learner, says the brief’s authors.

“Increasingly, individuals need both lifelong learning and accelerated, on-demand learning, largely as a response to the pressures of the broader evolving economic landscape,” explains the brief. “Technological advances [are also reducing] the lifespan of specific skills, and an increasingly globalized and automated workforce needs to continuously learn and retrain.”

The brief continues, noting that “existing institutions will likely have to choose what roles they can play sustainably and where they should be integrating emerging players and tools to support the learning needs of the future.”

However, before institutions can plan ahead, the brief suggests that they first understand what their major competition is and why.

(Next page: The 5 arenas providing traditional higher-ed’s biggest competition)

New pathways and options for learners are developing at a rapid pace, and the brief explains that this is due to the pressures of fulfilling today’s students’ needs; such as: guidance on selecting the best options; continual challenges; affordability; job placement; flexible and compressed timeframes; intangible skills and experiential learning; professional development; and network and community of practitioners.

According to the brief, these are the 5 arenas providing alternative postsecondary education in direct competition to traditional higher education:

1. The workforce: According to the brief, in 2013, 23 percent of employees left their jobs citing lack of opportunities for professional development and training. As companies begin to provide more of these PD opportunities, some such as SAP have started to create their own MOOC-based platforms, like openSAP, to allow experts within the workforce to create relevant and timely content. Others are turning to outside providers like Udemy.

2. Independent agents: As a larger amount of people accustomed to managing their own careers look outside of their small companies, these individuals are looking for external solutions for continuing their PD, says the brief. “This is where specialized boot camps (for example, Dev Bootcamp, Hack Reactor,  and Codecademy), Meetups, and MOOCs are emerging.”

3. Passion arenas: This group of people like to embrace challenges as opportunities to learn and enjoy finding solutions to make an impact in their interest area, as well as share their passion with others. This manifests itself as social communities and creation spaces–think EdCast.

4. Emerging countries: “The demand for learning through more inexpensive, pull-based, flexible models is leading to experiments with new platforms and environments to make learning accessible to a rapidly changing world,” says the brief. Though the first example that comes to mind is MOOCs, other global networks of institutions, such as Laureate Education or New York University’s global academic centers are gaining popularity in providing access within specific countries.

5. K-12: Though K-12 may not seem like competition to postsecondary ed, many of the experiments and innovations in learning that began in the K-12 space “translate into the postsecondary world,” emphasizes the brief. For example, AltSchool, a new network of K-8 schools in the Bay area is experimenting with ways to make the experience of learning more flow-based and immersive. Another example is Khan Academy—“In providing short, modular, on-demand self-paced math instruction to the K-12 audience for the past seven years, Khan Academy has been refining the platform and techniques for engaging learners in personalized curricula focused on skills mastery,” notes the brief.

“None of these emerging innovations provided by these arenas [accessibility, social learning, creation spaces, and warranting] is likely to supplant traditional education on its own,” admits the brief. “Collectively, however, they represent a rich and growing ecosystem of providers and learning opportunities that have the potential to disrupt education.”

For more information on the characteristics that will define the future postsecondary learning landscape, as well as what traditional institutions can do to gain a sustainable foothold against competitors, be sure to read the entire brief, “The lifelong learner: A journey through the future of postsecondary education,” here.

Sign up for our newsletter

Newsletter: Innovations in K12 Education
By submitting your information, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

Sign up for our newsletter

Newsletter: Innovations in K12 Education
By submitting your information, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.