I teach a
strategy course and a course with the title the Internet Economy, at a
university of applied science. With this skill set, this is how I would
evaluate the digital strategy of a university. These are my recommendations.
My first
recommendation might surprise you. The first thing you should do is get moving.
This should apply both to the individual person be that the student, teacher or
manager, and to the organization. Start
experimenting and jump on to the learning curve. If you are not convinced,
simply read the book Who Moved My Cheese. Nobody really knows what digitalization
will lead to, so the simple recommendation is to start searching, get cracking.
Digital has
been around for some time so this should be nothing new. Students have been
buying different gadgets and universities have been putting money into IT. However,
we are yet to see how digitalization will reshape the whole way we structure
our universities, our learning and move from educating the young to a lifelong
learning strategy.
A Digital
strategy is not a sticker pasted on top of your old strategy. Think! A car will
not become ecofriendly by simply adding a sticker eco. When evaluating a digital
strategy, I would be on the lookout for what changes and why. I would simply
check that the old strategy is in the dustbin.
A leader of
an organization can change e.g. the investment policy, the organizational
structure and the competence structure of staff. If there are no changes in any
of these, the new strategy is simply a sticker strategy. Nothing has and
nothing will change with a sticker strategy.
In digital
transformation, in a digital reshaping process, leaders will have to work to
build new ecosystems. To do this you need a clear vision. Most probably, a
leader will need to think ahead on which steps to take, so as, to be able to
put new elements and new structures needed by the ecosystem into place.
Intuitively I am thinking, how did they build Obama-care in the US? What to do,
what steps to take must have been thought through in advance and very
carefully. Some would argue, very wisely.
Let me give
you a very simple example of the value of thinking ahead. In Finland, many
universities have campuses located in relatively small cities. The board of
universities consists of local politicians. They want students to their local
campuses. The Board agenda should be designed so that, the board would first
decide whether teaching will be online or classroom. There is presently a huge
demand for online teaching and the board would be tempted to follow this trend
to ensure applicant numbers. In the next meeting, the board might find on their
agenda the decision of building a new campus. The decision to build would be
easily questionable. The other the items are on the agenda can influence the
end-result. Thinking ahead will allow the strategic leader to put in place
structures that are core to a new way of working and core to a digital university.
Sometimes you have to walk the donkey to water, excuse the expression.
In a
digital strategy, I would be on the lookout for how the strategy adapts to the
marginal cost zero problem, how it builds on scalability, how it finds new ways
of networking, how it understands openness and how it uses big data. Above all
I would be on the lookout is the university building a new business model. I
would focus on how teaching is changing.
Marginal
cost zero refers to the observation of Shapiro and Varian, in their book
Information Rules, That digital products (services) are costly to produce, but
their copying cost is zero. How are universities adapting to this. Are they
just asking students to google or are they producing great content and giving
it out free? Neither strategy is good.
A digital
class has no practical limit to the number of students. Scalability is very
important. I would be on the lookout for practical constraints to the size of a
class. Perhaps, a campus centered governance model limits the size of the
class. Perhaps, nobody is attempting to
distribute the course to other campuses or even other universities. What is the
university doing to market its courses beyond existing student base?
Because of
digitalization, the teacher is free to move. An individual teacher can search
for new ways to network with other teachers, co-create, and also teach in other
locations or co-teach on online environments and hence be more aware of
diversity. The student will also be free to move. Free to choose from a broader
offering of courses. This will lead to recommendation systems, algorithms and
the emergence of the Long Tail. Many of the things we see when using digital
media, will become part of our daily lives also at a university.
It is not
only the teacher and the student that can move. The university can also move.
It can e.g. establish a pop up campus in the neighboring cities. This is
currently happening and will blur the traditional concept of a regionally based
university.
Finland
values open education. However, because of technological development, we will
need to redefine, how we understand open. For the first time ever online course
providers all over the world are allowing anybody to participate. Universities
in Finland are stuck in the middle. Tax payers pay for the university system,
our ministry of education controls the numbers that can enroll for a university
degree. At the same time, students are moving abroad to e.g. study to become
doctors of medicine. The world is open, our university education system is not.
Our society needs to redefine the role of the state (and tax payer) in
providing university education.
Open does
not mean free. This will be a very fundamental lesson for many of our
universities in Finland. Universities will need to design a business model.
Digital business models are not easy. You have to understand how to build with
key externalities and key events (for a lack of a better word). I recommend you read the book Network Imperative
to understand.
Open does
mean availability. Are your courses available to all your students? If a
university has e.g. 250 teachers and each teacher teaches five classes a term,
1250 classes should be listed, viewable and searchable per term. Can students
register or tag these courses to preregister? Can they do this 365 days a year
on a 24/7 principle? Why not?
Universities
are not necessarily data driven. All you need to do is go to the philosophy or
arts departments and you will understand that numbers are not core to understanding
what it is to be human. I understand this. However, not looking into data is
foolish. There is data around, use it! For example, students plan their studies
and we could use this data to deliver according to demand or encourage students
to choose differently. We could use data to evaluate teacher performance and to
see which teacher produces the largest amount of student credits. Using data
leads to difficult ethical questions. Deciding not to use it, is simply a waste
of tax payer money.
Lately, I
have been wondering, do decisive moments in history exist? Was the creation of
the internet a decisive moment? What happened and when? It was a clear vision
of the Finland based Nokia, that the internet will become available on the
mobile handset. Yet, there was something, they did not get quite right. Once
all the pieces fell into place, the mobile internet has spread like wildfire.
What are the pieces that need to fall in place or what needs to change in the
structures of society, for education to change?
On my smart
phone, I have the EDX application. Students have it. Online education is about
to transform the way we educate. A central piece has fallen into place.
The smart
university is here.
