Lloyd Armstrong's Profile

Knowledge Management: an expanded role for higher ed in a changing world

In a post back in 2006 entitled What business are we in?, I suggested that a broader definition of the business of higher education might be Knowledge Management. At the time, the pieces were not in place to envisage how... Continue reading

Posted May 5, 2020 at Changing Higher Education

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Free college tuition is a lovely, but dangerous idea

"Free college tuition" is rapidly becoming a rallying cry in the permanent presidential campaign which now drives all policy discussions. It is easy to understand why. Tuition and fees in both the public and private sectors of higher education have... Continue reading

Posted Jun 20, 2019 at Changing Higher Education

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The high cost of funded research in colleges and universities

A college or university that does research ends up spending considerable resources of its own even when most of its research is “funded”. How and why is this the case, and where does the institution look to find the resources... Continue reading

Posted Aug 31, 2016 at Changing Higher Education

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California still not addressing the workforce gap - plus ca change

Five years ago in a post, I described a thesis study by Lauren Cooper on potential solutions to the looming workforce gap in California. Her analysis was based primarily on projections of California workforce needs in 2025 made by the... Continue reading

Posted Oct 30, 2015 at Changing Higher Education

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MIT's self-disruption: an update

In The future of MIT undergraduate education: a case study of disruption, I described two reports from MIT that laid out a stunning vision for the future of MIT undergraduate education. Among the suggestions of the reports are that education... Continue reading

Posted Oct 13, 2015 at Changing Higher Education

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"Baumol's cost disease" is the answer to a different question

In 1966, William Baumol and William Bowen looked at the origins of rising salaries for live performances (music, theater, dance), and noted that an underlying issue was that such performances could not easily be made more efficient - productivity could... Continue reading

Posted Jul 29, 2015 at Changing Higher Education

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Whither alternative (and improved) credentialing?

I recently served on a panel at a meeting organized by the California Higher Education Innovation Council to look at "Alternative Credentials and Unbundling the Degree: Meeting Employer Needs or Short-Circuiting Proven Approaches?" Our panel was challenged beforehand by its... Continue reading

Posted Jun 15, 2015 at Changing Higher Education

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Arizona State University and edX open a new frontier- maybe

Arizona State University (ASU) and edX recently announced a joint project to offer an online freshman year with full official credit from ASU - The Global Freshman Academy: “We’re going to have 12 new courses, of which students will take... Continue reading

Posted Apr 27, 2015 at Changing Higher Education

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Cost allocation in the research university and what it tells us

Universities often report a number that appears to indicate how much the university spends on instruction. We might believe that this number accurately represents teaching expenses and even do some analysis based on that belief. We would be wrong to... Continue reading

Posted Mar 2, 2015 at Changing Higher Education

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An update on StraighterLine - a "disruptor in the making"?

A few years ago, I identified a few organizations that I thought were doing things in higher education that were examples of approaches that potentially could be disruptive to the field (Potential disruptions in the higher education space). Among these... Continue reading

Posted Jan 26, 2015 at Changing Higher Education

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The problem with CA higher education is that no one asks what the problem is

The advertisements in a newspaper are more full of knowledge in respect to what is going on in a state or community than the editorial columns are. Henry Ward Beecher The editorial board of the Los Angeles times weighed in... Continue reading

Posted Jan 6, 2015 at Changing Higher Education

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A business model view of changing times in higher education

As my regular readers know, I have written several posts that utilize a business model approach to look at one aspect or another of higher education. Last year, readers suggested that I combine several of these posts in an article... Continue reading

Posted Dec 11, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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Barriers to innovation and change in higher education

I recently wrote an article entitled Barriers to Innovation and Change in Higher Education for the TIAA-CREF Institute. In it, I used a business model perspective to analyze obstacles to change in higher education. This approach facilitates drawing in insights... Continue reading

Posted Dec 2, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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The UC system moves off in a dangerous direction

When Janet Napolitano was appointed president of the University of California System, I was disappointed. Just when the UC System really needed a visionary educational leader who could inspire faculty and administrators to make the significant changes needed for the... Continue reading

Posted Nov 20, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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Fitting a square disruptive peg into a round sustaining hole

“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds John Maynard Keynes The Higher Education Reconciliation... Continue reading

Posted Oct 8, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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The future of MIT undergraduate education: a case study of disruption

On July 28, 2014, MIT released a very important report looking at its future: Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education, Final Report. This, taken with its November 21, 2013 (and more free-wheeling) precursor Institute-wide Task Force on... Continue reading

Posted Sep 8, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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A return to the elephant of college pricing

Every few years, I return to a consideration of ever-increasing college prices (2009, 2011). In these reports, I describe college pricing as an elephant because the issues around it are large, and depending on one's perspective, one can come to... Continue reading

Posted Aug 14, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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Are lectures detrimental to student learning?

Carl Wieman recently called a very important Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' article to my attention. The article's title clearly describes its subject and conclusion: Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. The authors of... Continue reading

Posted Jun 25, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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Reputation and brand in the changing world of higher education

The world of higher education has obviously entered into a period of many changes. Major universities have jumped into the MOOC game, classrooms have been flipped, competency based learning is going mainstream, government at all levels is demanding measurable outcomes,... Continue reading

Posted Apr 28, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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Now here is something that could be really disruptive

David G.W.Birch recently posted a very thought-provoking contribution Badges? We Don't Need No Linkedin Badges on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network. In it, he argues that social networks are beginning to replace other intermediaries (hacks) in the trust networks... Continue reading

Posted Apr 3, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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MITx and the transformation of residential education

In short, to stay true to our educational values, we must seize the opportunity to reimagine what we do and how we do it. —President L. Rafael Reif On December 19, 2011, MIT announced a new venture, MITx, that would... Continue reading

Posted Jan 21, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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2013- the year of ups and downs for the MOOCs

The biggest thing in higher ed news during 2013 arguably was, as in 2012, MOOCs. Some of the news was good, some was bad. Much of the emphasis was on the continuing rise of the MOOCs. Coursera added university partners... Continue reading

Posted Jan 13, 2014 at Changing Higher Education

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Accreditation: ally or obstacle as higher education wrestles with change?

Goldie Blumenstyk recently published a very nice description of the accreditation issues that led to the shut down of the generally acclaimed for-profit/nonprofit partnership of Altius Education and Tiffin College. As Blumenstyk points out, there are critics who feel that... Continue reading

Posted Oct 29, 2013 at Changing Higher Education

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Are tenure track professors better teachers?

Higher education is faced with many challenges at this time. Two, however, stand out as providing critical tests for the future viability of many institutions. The first is the growing set of constraints on revenues, and the second is the... Continue reading

Posted Sep 18, 2013 at Changing Higher Education

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Competency-based transcripts and information transmission

InsideHigherEd has a very interesting article on the competency based transcripts that Northern Arizona University is now offering to students enrolled in its new competency-based program. The sample transcript attached to the article shows the competencies that are being assessed,... Continue reading

Posted Aug 12, 2013 at Changing Higher Education

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