New OSG Whitepaper: Strategic Directions for Online Learning
Last week, we published our latest Whitepaper on online learning: Strategic Directions and Non-Directions That Independent Schools are Taking in Online Learning. We hope that this paper helps schools to understand both how independent schools are currently engaging in online learning and why schools thinking strategically about online learning have a large advantage.
Most of the Whitepaper focuses on the four ways that we see schools engaging (or not) in online education: Skeptics and the “Tried and True;” “Dabblers” and “Lone Wolves;” Pilots with a Plan; and Strategic Actors and Thinkers.
The Whitepaper ends with a rationale for why schools need to engage at a strategic level now:
If prognostications are correct, and half of all courses at the high school level are taught online by 2019, independent schools will have to address online learning at some point in the near future. However, if the current market forces (university and for-profit) for online high school courses grow— and there is no reason right now to believe that they would not— then it will be increasingly hard for independent schools to create online course opportunities to meet the demands of students and their parents while also meeting the mission and principles of their school, as it is hard to imagine a lecture-styled college course or a Computer Based Instruction (CBI) course resonating with most independent school’s missions.
The schools that engage today and actively move toward strategically thinking about online education will have some time both to meet their mission and to strategically use online learning to deliver a great 21st century educational experience for students.
