Video Of The Week: Going To The Blackboard To Talk About Online Higher Education

A few weeks ago, I went down to Wharton, where I got an MBA in the mid 80s, to talk about "being contrarian". My experience with MBAs tells me that they need to be encouraged to think outside of the box and that's what I went down there to evangelize.

During the Q&A, which was excellent, way better than the talk itself, I got a question about higher education. Specifically, I was asked what I would do about the "threat" of online education if I ran Wharton. 

I went to the blackboard, got some chalk, and laid out something that has been rattling around in my mind for the better part of the past few years. I think it is the first time I have laid out this vision in its entirety. The whole thing lasted less than five minutes and it was videotaped so I am making the "chalk talk" my video of the week.

Sadly, the camera was fixed on a tripod so the blackboard itself is not caught in the video. The folks who ran the event and filmed it managed to embed a still of the blackboard in its final incarnation in the upper left of this video so you can get a feel for what I was drawing as I was talking.

I think all institutions of higher education need to adopt the trifecta model which is MOOC, blended, traditional, if they want to remain vital in the coming years.