Our job as faculty is to deliver learning experiences—classes—that effectively achieve the objectives of the faculty, the student, and the institution. I hypothesize that the institution needs to consider the marketplace for learning more explicitly in its actions when offering a digital learning experience than when it was just offering in-person learning.
Why do I think this?
When a learning experience is delivered in person, the learner has indicated by his or her choice to attend the in-person class that in-person attendance is important and, perhaps, more important than other facets of the decision. It might be that the learner thinks that an in-person class will be attended by other local students who might become important members of the learner’s personal network. Or it could be that the prospect believes that an in-person class will, necessarily, be of higher quality than a digital experience. In any event, in comparing the opportunity to attend the in-person class to other choices, the in-person class was the winner. It is unclear whether the learner ever would have chosen to attend a digital event. (This would be an important question of attitude for an institution to keep track of over time.) Was there ever really a competition for the prospect going on between the digital and in-person classes?
When offering a class digitally, an institution competes in a marketplace for learning. For a prospect to attend a digital learning experience, he or she would have had to choose this experience over other, digital or in-person, experiences. The prospect’s decision process (thinking about Bayes’ Theorem here) would have a prior expectation related to the quality of the learning experience under consideration. Consider the following facets that (should?) go into the setting of this prior expectation:
- Assessment of the fit between the class’s learning objectives and the prospect’s learning objectives
- The expected probability that the class will deliver on its learning objective
- The perceived quality of the expert leading the class
- How much the prospect appreciates (both enjoys and expects to benefit from) the pedagogical approach that is expected to be used in the class
- The perceived quality of the platform upon which the class will be delivered and the extent to which it can support the achievement of everyone’s objectives in the learning experience
(Again, the actual facets that go into the decision that prospects make is another important question to track.)
What are the lessons that the faculty and the institution should take from this list if they want to have the highest possible priors and, thus, get the highest possible enrollments?
- The learning objectives should be as clearly stated as possible.
- The leader of the experience should dedicate him/herself to delivering on the learning objectives that were laid out. Any shortfall here will lower the priors for future enrollment decisions, thus reducing future enrollment levels.
- The institution should clearly describe the expert’s qualifications to lead the class in a way that prospects can understand and appreciate.
- The class should be delivered in a way that a learner benefits most from and that is most enjoyable to a learner.
- The learning platform should enable the best possible learning experience.
Suppose the institution and faculty member do not do the above. In that case, priors will be lowered, thus hurting future enrollments—possibly across the entire institution, depending upon how the prospect defines his/her priors.
When competing in the marketplace for learning, an institution and faculty member must be committed to describing what they will deliver, to delivering on it, and to ensuring that it is of the highest quality possible.
If this doesn’t happen, mechanisms of the marketplace for learning will ensure that future enrollments will suffer.
I want to make some short points about the last two items above.
Regarding the pedagogical approach: I’m a big believer (along with most people who study the science of learning) in active learning. However, a recent study shows that students may need lessons on the benefits of active learning. If the class will use an active learning approach, explain the reasons for the choice in advertisements and during the class. If this approach is going to be used, you want the learners to understand that it is not only a highly enjoyable way of learning but also very effective.
And as to the implied question in the last point related to the learning platform: I will address the question of what makes the best possible learning experience soon (because this post is already long enough).
