Disruptive Technologies

On Thursday, the President of a university that I have worked with over the years sent me a clip about his ranking among online MBA programs.   His was listed on the US News Honor Roll for those programs.   Online programs grew by about 10% last year.   The rate of growth actually plateaued compared to previous years although growth continues.   The survey looks at students who took at least one course which had at least 80% of its content online.   That is a pretty loose standard but it gives you an idea of the dimensions of online education.   There is a coalition of institutions that is trying to research the growth of online programs and at the same time attempting to establish standards of quality.   The Sloan Consortium publishes an annual report to chart what is going on in the field.

What struck me most about the rankings is that most of the names on the list are not known for their prestige or for the general position of being innovators in the education field.  That suggests that this area of higher education is experiencing a lot innovation from unexpected places - i.e. disruption.