4 Tech Trends That Will Make Colleges and Universities Better Teachers

Guest author Troy Williams is president of Macmillan New Ventures, a venture capital firm. 

These are dark days for many colleges and universities. Sharp decreases in government funding and private-giving have forced academic cutbacks. That, along with soaring tuition and disappointing postgraduate employment, has earned the United States the dubious distinction of being number one in college dropouts. 

A Silver Lining

The good news is that higher ed is, at long last, critically evaluating the effectiveness of its teaching methods. Many college and university administrators now believe that digital technology can be a valuable tool for better serving students. The higher ed crisis has led to an explosion in education technology startups. In the next few years, colleges and universities will be able to choose from a host of technology products and services optimized for higher ed.

Here are four tips for success in the higher ed market:

1. Deeper Data. Tracking students can help colleges and universities to reduce dropout rates. Data can pinpoint those students most likely to drop out and match them with professors who have been successful helping students with similar learning styles. College and university administrators will be looking for vendors who can supply them with sophisticated data mining tools, training and services. 

2. Schools As Businesses. Today's colleges and universities are being run like corporations. Their business leaders who sit on their boards often have very different priorities than academics. They want to see their schools do a better job of attracting top students, retaining them and doing both in the most efficient way possible. The old model whereby tenured professors dictated teaching methods is no longer viable. Startups should pitch administrators keeping in mind that they answer to results-oriented boards. They should persuade with hard data or in the absence of it, ally with vendors that have a proven track record.

3. Commodification Of Content. A decade ago, academia viewed online education with mistrust. Since then, online educational materials and open-source learning have gone legitimate. And for good reason: the Internet offers cash-strapped colleges and universities a cost-effective content delivery model. Now, more universities recognize credits earned online. Ed-tech companies that sell tools, products and services to help colleges and universities offer a virtual experience on par with that of real-world classrooms will find enthusiastic buyers. They'll be following in the footsteps of non-profit Khan Academy that has made a big name for itself offering a library of online educational videos and interactive programs.

4. Hybrid Classrooms. To remain viable colleges and universities must offer classroom experience superior to that of the virtual world. Learning management systems (LMS) that facilitate flipped learning can help them do that. In flipped learning, students listen to lectures at home and go to class for hands-on learning based on what they've heard. This style of teaching has been dramatically effective: at Clintondale High School in Michigan, flipping reduced the number of freshmen failing English from 50% to 19%. There will be strong demand for products that offer either all or part of a LMS.

A Change Is Gonna Come

Education reform has often moved at a glacial pace. Among the reasons: tradition, the power of tenured faculty, the availability of money - public and private, and students who considered a college degree to be critical for success.

Times have changed and those reasons are no longer as powerful as they used to be. As colleges and universities change with the times, they will find that technology will be an in valuable tool to survive this painful, but necessary, transformation.  

 

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