Via Tony Bates, the Cal State system has outsourced their entire online infrastructure and expertise to Pearson. This is pretty insane, and I have to agree with what Bates suggests may be the tragic mistake in such a move:
All the online expertise (if not the content) will accumulate to Pearson. If in particular hybrid learning (a mix of online and classroom teaching) becomes the norm in post-secondary education, as I think it will, where will that leave the Cal State system compared to its competitors? Will it also have to depend on Pearson for developing its campus-based teaching which will then also have a large online element?
And the money quote for me: “You don’t outsource your future core competencies.” I cant help but think the “largest public state system of senior higher education in the country” outsourcing the future of 23 campuses, approximately 427,000 students and 44,000 faculty and staff is nothing but a colossal disinvestment in public sector jobs and expertise. The abdiction of the future of a public education system like Cal State is horrifying—I can’t help but think the collapse we are witnessing may prove the beginning of a new era.
A windfall for Cal State, they can close early today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vxK4kf4AqA
Brian,
Exactly, give them all the weapons they need to kill you. Watching the California publich higher education system implode has been one of the greatest tragedies I’ve witnessed in this space. Like many others, I headed West to get an excellent, dirt cheap education at their community colleges and then the UC system. Not only is it infinitely more expensive for the students, and it seems to be run by a bunch of people intent on gutting it of its mission. I was at CUNY during similar days, if I just look hard enough the writing is on the wall. To quote the great Becket from Endgame: “and what do you see on your wall? Mene, mene? Naked bodies?”
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