Education Innovators

Many institutions with a single traditional brick and mortar campus are diversifying the methods for delivering their programs by going online, developing hybrid courses, and even establishing centers at locations off-campus. In his UBTech featured session, “Using Multiple Delivery Methods to Reduce the Cost of Higher Education,” Alan Walker, former president of Upper Iowa University, will discuss the challenges and cost benefits of strategic diversification.

University Business readers know Jim Samels and Jim Martin as the coauthors of the long running “Future Shock” column in each issue and online. The column covers a broad range of topics from higher education management and leadership issues to community relations and sustainable thinking.

In June, the pair will be featured speakers at the UBTech conference in Orlando, presenting “Myths and Realities of Campus Sustainability: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Pledge Financial Allegiance to Green Energy and Technology Solutions.”

Marketing and branding expert Tom Dougherty says that colleges and universities can and should adopt the promotional strategies of the top consumer brands. An often-quoted source on business and brands, he has been featured recently by The New York Times and CNN, discussing topics ranging from television to Apple to airlines. In his 25-year career, Dougherty has helped companies like Lexus, Tide, and IKEA capture market share from competitors by changing their focus from product to people.

Tony Bates is the author of 11 books in the field of online learning and distance education. In addition to his most recent title, Managing Technology in Higher Education: Strategies for Transforming Teaching and Learning (Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Co. 2011), Bates moderates a widely read blog about online learning and distance education resources at www.tonybates.ca. Popular with audiences at education conferences around the world, Bates will be a featured speaker at UBTech 2013 in Orlando.

Gene Wade is making it his goal to provide quality education at a low cost. As cofounder and CEO of UniversityNow, which combines an online learning platform with on-campus partners, Wade offers an easily accessible college education that most people can afford without loans or financial aid.
“I became an education entrepreneur because the current system fails far too many people,” he says.

UBTech 2012 and 2013 presenter Daniel Rasmus is a strategist who helps clients put their future in context. Rasmus uses scenarios to analyze trends in society, technology, economics, the environment, and politics to discover implications used to develop and refine products, services and experiences. Previously, Rasmus was the director of business insights at Microsoft, where he helped the company envision how people will work in the future. He managed the Center for Information Work, an immersive experience that helped Microsoft’s customers experience the future of work first-hand.

Richard Baraniuk, a professor of electrical and computer science at Rice University in Houston, is founder of the nonprofit education project Connexions. Connexions is a pioneer in open education resources, acting as a repository for more than 17,000 learning objects and over 1,000 collections (textbooks and journal articles) that are used by over 2 million people each month. The materials are freely accessible and can be remixed and repurposed for individual needs.

Sree Sreenivasan is a journalist and technology expert at Columbia School of Journalism. As anyone who has sat in his class or watched one of his YouTube videos will attest, Sreenivasan’s particular strength is in explaining technology to students, faculty, and consumers. He is the former technology reporter for two New York television stations, a social media blogger for CNET, and producer of his own weekly web-based call-in show. But this year, Sreenivasan added another notch to his belt as Columbia University’s first Chief Digital Officer.

In May, MIT and Harvard announced a $60 million joint venture, called edX, to develop an open-source platform to deliver online courses. The descendant of MIT’s OpenCourseWare project that made the institution’s course materials freely available, edX offers significant improvements. For one thing, unlike OCW, edX will host full MITx and Harvardx faculty-led courses, with certificates of mastery at completion. In July, edX announced the addition of UC Berkeley to the project, and the formation of the X-University Consortium.