Rebecca Knight reports that
For Kathryn Bowser, a 19-year-old biology student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, the best time to sit through a lecture on organic chemistry happens to be when she is riding the exercise bike at the gym.
The right product to the right person at the right time. It's the oldest rule about making money in the marketplace.
The core value of higher education is not the lecture series. Rather it's the continuing real world conversation among students, faculty and others in the community and the rich networks that grow in the college experience.
If the lecture can be delivered faster, better, and cheaper using new technology, it's not surprising that an innovative company is figuring out how to do it. And not surprisingly, there will be many Universities that will be frightened at the idea of reliquishing "control" of their "content". As were music companies, and book publishers.
But the relentless logic of the GME redefines value creation and disaggregates value packages that worked well in the last century, but have become less valuable in this one.
A central concept of the GME is that the monetizable value is timeliness and effectiveness. Any entreprise that can save time and increase effectiveness at the appropriate cost will find a sustainable business model. It just may not be the one they presently have.
If educational content can be delivered in less time, and be available when the student (consumer) is most ready to absorb it a business model will probably emerge that will allow that to happen.
