Post Corona: Online Higher Ed is The Way
During Covid-19, I stumbled upon an online learning journey that took me to Chinese (Duolingo), Coding (Mimo), and Product Management (Udacity/Coursera/Udemy). And now, I just got accepted into Quantic’s EMBA program! (🚀#Accepted #DegreeBound and shout out to my Quantic Executive MBA — July 2020 classmates!)
The logic is quite simple: why pay $150,000++ for a 2 year long degree where you can’t attend the campus or travel to it, where people are socially distancing and the content is poorly recorded lectures? As someone who reads Professor Scott Galloway’s blog religiously, it doesn’t make sense. And it’s not like the airports will open any time soon and the prospects of arriving at a foreign country to be deported, denied a visa or discover that your university decide to take your full tuition but move to all online lectures didn’t really excited me.
Higher Ed today feels like highway robbery where you have Stockholm’s syndrome and let the robbers in the door. The industry became a luxury product with a whopping 90%+ margins, overpriced textbooks, and a rubber-stamping industry for the good life with fancy logos that looks like crests and shields, prestigious gala dinners and a false sense of superiority by being credentialed from institutions that just happened to be very, very old. And now, margins are even higher when all classes are moved into Zoom. In Post Covid-19, we have to ask: is it still worth it?
Let’s ask ourselves the hard question: What’s likely the return on investment? Getting ourselves into so much debt, and yet have no chance to make much of the money back in the foreseeable future? With that in mind, while I decided that during Covid-19. I want to do an EMBA to solidify & build upon my decade long experience as a CEO, I wanted a better way that was suited to me: short, bite sized, no overpriced textbooks or tests that I will never use and practical for the real world.
One thing people usually give me excuses of why traditional Higher Ed is so important is because of the networks: being plugged into the elite clubs where deals can be made, alumni can help each other out on jobs and to broaden your network. Well guess what, after working almost a decade building coworking communities at HUBBA or conferences and media at Techsauce, you can literally tap into any person and networks now online, via Slack and Zoom calls, join virtual accelerator programs and hackathons or just hit people up on Linkedin to start a conversation. There’s even Tinder for online networking like Shapr and Lunchclub which I use weekly. People are just more open to having random conversations these days because the alternative, meeting in person, is now a health scare and sometimes physcially impossible. Furthermore, the networks you can build now virtually with people who share a similar journey and interest is more targeted and way more efficient than joining an MBA and to discover you a few your friends in your class. So this argument about networks, trust me, is BS.
The Future of Education is here and I don’t know what will come out of Quantic Business School. Initial reviews looks good, and I took the entire introductory course and enjoyed it. There’s a student executive placement platform built in that’s connected to prospective employers and also a networking tool to connect with Alumni from across the world in near real time. Everything seems digital, automated and designed for the 21st century learner. So far, it fits with my busy schedule running a fund at Impact Collective, not being able to travel anywhere and advising many companies. Plus, the UI/UX so far has been great and the experience feels mobile first too, unlike the traditional MOOCs that felt like just digitized lectures. (P.s. We are looking for great companies that are going to disrupt education in Asia Post-Covid 19: send us your projects and let us fund/accelerate you!)
It’s an exciting journey and I’ll keep you posted on life hacking via edtech. If you don’t believe me that Higher Ed is a rip-off, read:
and make up your own mind if going online is the way. However, there’s no better time to try a better way and there isn’t much choice! So jump in, and join me as I stumble down this rabbit hole on the Future of Education.
The Aim is The Way
More great reads from Prof. Galloway:
