More and more colleges are hiring for-profit companies to build and market their online programs, a controversial practice that worries some observers. This week the online-outsourcing industry is going through a significant consolidation. Two of its leading competitors, Embanet and Compass Knowledge Group, are merging.
In the announcement, the companies billed the move as a “winning combination” for their clients, a long list of nonprofit institutions that includes well-known names like Northwestern University and George Washington University. That list is likely to grow: “In the next five years, we expect nearly four million new online learners will come into this market,” said Steve Fireng, chief executive of Embanet.
The question now will be whether a larger company is a better one, says Jay A. Halfond, dean of Metropolitan College and Extended Education at Boston University, which uses both Embanet and Compass. The corporate marriage, he says, will create “some interesting ethical challenges.”
“Will they be able to host competing programs from different universities, and build firewalls that reassure their university affiliates?” Mr. Halfond asked in an e-mail to The Chronicle. “We in higher education are accustomed to institutions that are built to last centuries—so working with dynamic, ever-changing for-profits can be very challenging in the volatility of their ownership, structure, growth, and staffing. It is not always a natural marriage, and like all marriages is based on trust, so it will be interesting to see whether this new company is better able to reassure universities of its stability and reliability.”
20 Responses to 2 Leading Online Outsourcers Merge, Consolidating a Market
latino - October 27, 2010 at 11:25 am
Little note for such an important challenge to what is ethical in research and education. This includes also particular interests making decisions on contracts.
What about giving resources and opportunities to faculty and graduate students to develop particular programs rather than congratulate yourself for your intelligent decisions to intersting “ethical” challenges?
Trey Medley - August 17, 2011 at 5:54 am
That’s great. Also, there is the recent surge in desemination of ideas from “big idea” conferences, the most well know of which is TED (admittedly many of those talks are fluff, but many are genuinely revolutionary or at least potentially so). These are a new phenomenon that in many ways is moving potentially revolutionary ideas away from the few celebrity academics to the dedicated researcher/worker/what-have-you bringing such an idea to the general populace (especially through the TED website that is making all of these talks available). But you know, like you said, big ideas are dead.
dank48 - August 17, 2011 at 9:06 am
Of course, if it hadn’t been for the invasion of the boob tube into our homes–no matter how hard we tried to keep the damn thing out of the house, it still made its way in there, crowding out stacks of books, magazines, and newspapers–I’d probably never have heard of Neal Gabler. I don’t think he’s a bad guy, but he seems to have had a bad day.
You know, some people like democracy in theory but aren’t terribly keen on it in practice. It’s so messy, cluttered, and unorganized. If you concentrate hard enough on the fact that the ground is covered ankle deep in organic fertilizer, you might just miss seeing the roses at all.
3rdtyrant - August 17, 2011 at 10:34 am
I don’t know a family that has taken TV out of their homes that hasn’t had over-achieving children. Of course, TV removal is just the evidence of their attitude toward things in general, so it’s not causal by any means. Still, it’s a step in the right direction.
dank48 - August 17, 2011 at 11:25 am
I was outvoted. Another problem with “carrying democracy too far.”
alancontreras - August 17, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Great piece, Tom. It’s true that there are a lot more bits of texty stuff and loose images floating around out there now than during the glory days of the Dick Cavett Show, but what one does with all of this is highly personal.
I am a semi-old curmudgeon at 55, but even curmudgeons can decide to keep Facebook because it is useful for some purposes and reasonably well organized and ditch MySpace because it is a trashy mess. I don’t tweet because I don’t need to and I heaved my TV over the side 18 years ago because I didn’t need it any more. I have an iPhone because it perfectly suits my needs, but I can’t think of any reason to own an iPad because it does not do anything that I need to do.
The tides of modernity wash all sorts of things past us – the trick is to pick and choose what we as individuals need and like, thereby not drowning in new stuff.
The delightful neologism “desemination” appeared in another post. It actually covers Mr. Gabler’s situation pretty well – he apparently stopped being seminated some time ago and is content to stay that way.
As for the rest of us, we can autoseminar ourselves as we choose, from the ideas that are constantly flowing past in whatever media we choose.
bghansel - August 18, 2011 at 9:07 am
I’ve noticed as I’ve become older that I’m less easily impressed. If others have the same experience, it could very well seem that what you were thinking about when you were easily impressed is “bigger” than what you’re thinking about now. Thanks for reminding me.
bryanalexander - August 18, 2011 at 11:37 am
Great take-down, Tom.
bjones06 - August 18, 2011 at 1:50 pm
I don’t entirely disagree with this post nor do I entirely agree with the NY Times essay. I do believe, however, that this post is written in a way that seems oddly personal and bully-like.
radenski - August 18, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Nicely written, but not necessarily 100% valid. Consider this:
“What the future portends is more and more information — Everests of it. There won’t be anything we won’t know. But there will be no one thinking about it.”
The author probably has not heard of – or possibly chose to ignore – a whole paradigm shift in computing towards “big data” processing. Companies – and scholars as well – are actively using the exponentially increasing data (including even such seemingly meaningless sources as Twitter and Facebook, the kitchen talk sites). Take a look here: http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/big_data/index.asp – or simply search the internet for ‘big data’.
mythkat - August 18, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Fantastic….the NY piece was written by GOMWACAIBFAT division chaired, of course. Tough group to get into, for sure. I think the meeting is in Palm Springs, though, Tom (dryer climate).
electronicmuse - August 19, 2011 at 6:32 am
It may be accurate that big ideas are not dead-as this author’s examples seem to document. It may also be that fewer and fewer people are interested in depth-at any depth. I’m neither intimidated nor confused by Facebook and Twitter-I teach “technology.” I simply recognize “social networking” for what it typically represents: the narcissicism of a culture that no longer requires “entertaining ourselves to death,” but has settled for merely “distracting ourselves to death.”
It might be that ” . . . there can be both” (depth and shallowness?), but spending time doing one thing tends to preclude having the time to do another . . .
Enjoy your sandwich. Dystopia might be a lot closer than you think . . . if you think not, take a peek at our “political” system, and ask yourself how many people in this country would recognize a “big idea” if it smacked them in the face. Now, read “soundbite” and “spin” for “tweet” and “network,” and then ask yourself . . .
Oh, never mind. Have another sandwich.
electronicmuse - August 19, 2011 at 6:34 am
Yup, that’s right. “Pick and choose.” And not be intimidated by “the crowd,” who actually act as mindless surrogates for marketing campaigns that sell, sell, sell.
Philip Edgar Beigbeder - August 19, 2011 at 10:28 pm
always hope, and it comes when it does
Philip Edgar Beigbeder - August 19, 2011 at 10:30 pm
technology may accelerate the end simply due to their existance
Emily Lloyd - August 28, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Rock on, Tom. I’m just reading this now–late to the party–but the NYT article affected me similarly. Especially since I’ve just finished the thinkiest, biggest-idea book I’ve read in a long while: Jane McGonigal’s “Reality Is Broken: Why Games
Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World” (published in post-idea 2011!) Gabler mustn’t be looking in the right places.
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billbooth - October 20, 2011 at 7:19 am
I’ve a big idea I think? Rake the ancient spirituality of the 12 steps and make them fun! I’m working on books and a website as an ex-teacher, for those with conditions and also for the normal every day person wanting spiritual growth. There are some well known academics on this project, yet the ultimate participant may have never read a book before! Bill Booth re
e 12
Steps
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