Coding bootcamps, online learning, and various non-accredited alternative learning programs pose a threat to higher education. Let's look at where this evolution is going.

1. October Whitepaper
HIGHER
EDUCATION
IN THE AGE
OF ACCESS

2. On October 14, 2015, the US Education
Department announced that it would
begin to offer federal student loans to
students attending a few select “coding
bootcamps.”
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3. These bootcamps generally take 6 weeks to
complete and cost around $10,000—and
promise to turn just about anyone into a
programmer.
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The US Education Department estimates that
16,000 people will graduate from them by
2015. Promising strict oversight, the Education
Department will work with programs that have
partnered with college's .

4. Federal student loans were designed
for institutions of higher education,
and yet basically everything we’ve
used to define these institutions are
absent in these coding camps
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New Territory

5. Attention scan
These programs represent a major change in consumer
services that are a threat to institutions from higher
learning to media.
By utilizing modern technology these alternative programs
can empower individuals to get what they want, when they
want, without the help of bloated institutions.
New Territory

6. Adapting to this new age poses a major communications
and rebranding challenge.
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To prepare for this we’ll need to look at a how
this progression will effect the future of
higher-ed in the US.

7. Attention scan
To do that we’re going to start at what may seem
to be a very unlikely place. A place that’s as
American as apple pie and college tuition.

8. Attention scan

9. Attention scan
Malls were places where people used to go to hang out, eat, and shop. Centrally-
located with vast expanses in parking, offerings ranging from 20-screen
multiplexes to a cornucopia of chain restaurants, and areas for kids, teens and
adults to congregate and play, malls were the town squares of suburbia.
REMEMBER MALLS?

10. But when E-commerce first appeared in the late
1990’s, pundits everywhere were quick to
announced the death of the mall.
Why would anyone go out when they could
shop at home in their underwear?
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11. Well, as it turns out the pundits
were overlooking one vital
shopping mall advantage.
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For most middle-class suburban
consumers, “shopping” wasn’t just
about procuring goods. The mall
was a place to meet other people.

12. Attention scan
For the stay at home mom, going to the mall wasn’t a
chore, especially when she could sip a latte with her
girlfriends while their toddlers played in a fenced in,
cushioned play area.
For teens, malls were a place to socialize, to
see and be seen in an environment their
parents wouldn’t hassle them about.

13. Attention scan
But unfortunately, the
social advantages couldn’t
be preserved forever.

14. The decline and fall,
of the American Mall
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15. Much like our current prospective student base,
the middle class these malls once catered to is
dramatically less financially viable than they used
to be. That, and the 2008 recession, resulted is
drop in consumerism.
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16. But economics and demographics aren’t the only
forces remaking the retail landscape.
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Mobile and social technologies have had a large
impact on consumer shopping behaviors well. And
that’s because of one word: Access

17. Access to information and access to people.
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18. Access to information.
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According to Nielsen’s 2014 State of the Shopping Center report,
87% of consumers with Smartphones or tablets use these mobile
devices when shopping—not to by things—but to research
products, browse reviews, compare prices and turn to their peers
for advice and ideas about what to purchase via social media.

19. Access to people.
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While moms may have headed to the mall in order to socialize in
days gone by, today they can connect with their friends on
Facebook, swap purchase ideas on Pinterest, and even ask
for advice about what to buy using Snapchat, Periscope or
other more-or-less real-time visual social media.

20. Attention scan
9-11-2001
Department Store Sales: 1990-2015
with key social/mobile launches

21. Attention scan
The evolution of retail shopping in this
changing landscape be quite easily
compared to that of higher education.

22. Attention scan
Elite universities are headed the
same was the luxury mall:
continued success with increasingly
limited access.

23. Attention scan
The rise of skills-based online institutions and those focusing
intensely on regional identity or unique, differentiating programs
echoes the “boutiquing” of retail, where small stores survive
through intense focus, differentiation, and a connection to the
community.

24. Attention scan
Just as e-commerce and physical retail are beginning to
feel out a new kind of symbiotic relationship, many
institutions are beginning to reach out and partner with
specialized online players such as coding academies.

25. Attention scan
Just as retailers are unable to deny the impact of sites like Yelp and
Google Reviews on the performance of their businesses, institutions of
higher learning better start listening to sites like RateMyProfessor and
Niche— and heeding what they read— before it’s too late. Today’s
consumers are increasingly turning to review sites when they need to
make a buying decision.

26. Attention scan
These changes are coming after a long period of
institutionalized higher education, developed from
social and cultural movements—Post WWII boom, the
GI Bill and Space Age competition.

27. Attention scan
Bolstered by American Media weaving a college education into the
American dream, Colleges and Universities expanded their physical plants
and administrative units, adding more and better facilities to compete with
an increasingly “consumerist” base of prospective student who’d been
raised to expect certain amenities. They revamped their curricula to
become more relevant to the job market.

28. Attention scan
Institutions of higher learning became, in varying degrees,
“one-stop-education-shops” where aspirational, middle class
consumers could go in order to get the education they
needed to achieve the American Dream. In other words,
they became malls.

29. October Whitepaper
THE AGE
OF ACCESS

30. Institutions of higher learning were, by definition,
designed to be repositories of information.
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They transmitted information to new generations
They were gatekeepers to information
They gave students access to scholarly texts
The grades and degrees they gave were the only
signifier of a successful transmission of information
that employers could trust.

31. Social interactions on campus prepared students to
deal with the kinds of interpersonal relationships they’d
have to deal with later on in lives.
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Student life and interaction between
students was important as well.
Social interaction and access to people took the form of
“socials” or “balls” and even sporting events.
Access to networks of alumni was often promoted
as a perk of attendance.
Fraternities and sororities formed bonds that went
beyond graduation.

32. Digital technology and the Internet has taken knowledge from
the gatekeeper and made it easily accessible.
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But technology now available to us in this Age of
Access turn much of these traditions on their heads.
Open online courses have released the information that was
once relegated to the classroom.
Social media allows us to connect with the contacts we would
have made in college.

33. While the past several decades have been marked by
the fracturing of a wide range of institutions across
American society—the breakup of the Bell Systems in
1982, the steady erosion of government programs
implemented during the more progressive decades
earlier in the 20th century, the fragmentation of mass
media brought about by technology—institutions of
higher learning have been remarkably resistant to
change. Until now.
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34. The Great
Fracturing
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35. The recent decisions by the Federal Government to
offer student loans to coding bootcamps is a clear
indication that the inevitable fracturing of higher
education as we knew it is underway.
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36. It’s a clear admission that the systems that have
been in places for decades no longer work when it
comes to preparing people for the workplace.
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If you can learn what you need to learn to land a 6-figure
job in 6 weeks for under $20,000, why bother spending
4-5 years and potentially hundreds of thousands of
dollars to learn skills that could be out of date before you
graduate?

37. College as we know it is too slow, too
expensive, and, for the most part, hasn’t
adapted to the realities of the Age of
Access. They’re lumbering dinosaurs
and alternative learning channels like
coding bootcamps are like the first
mammals scurrying about under the feet
of the great lizards. They may not look
like much now, but they’re the future.
And the dinosaurs don’t even notice
they’re there.
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38. Attention scan
Here’s what we think the
future might look like.

39. Instead of a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience with
a beginning and an end, “college” may become
something that we experience in fragments as we need
it throughout our lives and careers.
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40. Students graduating from high school may opt to jumpstart their careers
through intense, focused vocational training and then move on towards
developing the “softer” skills of a traditional liberal education as they
progress in their careers and need to acquire more sophisticated critical
thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.
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41. These may be provided by institutions that we used to call
“colleges,” but they’ll be a lot smaller, geared towards
more intensive instruction over a much shorter period of
time. When they need to learn additional skills in order to
stay current in their careers, people may turn to other
educational providers geared towards providing that kind
of instruction, either in person or online.
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42. Enterprising students may just opt to learn skills on their
own from online sources followed by taking a
standardized test to earn a “badge” or other
microcredential recognized by employers.
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43. Workers may contribute monthly to their Educational Maintenance
Organization, an organization structure much like health insurance
companies that allows students to continue their educations at ore-
negotiated group rates. Adult learners may join the educational
equivalent of health club where they pay one monthly fee to take all the
classes offered by the “brain gym” they want.
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44. Diplomas may be replaced by “badges” or other
microcredntials indicating mastery of particular skills.
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45. While these predictions are difficult to make—2065
might not look anything like what we just described—
we are quite certain that the fragmentation of
education and the utilization of technology that gives
individuals autonomy over their education, will shape
the final outcome.
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46. These new institutions of higher learning will
need a new story to tell. As they progress so
will their marketing, communication and
technological needs.
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47. Read full whitepaper

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