Branding and reach will be a major challenge and opportunity for MOOCS of existing public and non-profit universities. First of all all, let's clarify that MOOCS are Massive Open Online Courses offered by a variety of for-profit-and non-profit academic institutions.
I want to focus on only one aspect of the potential impact of MOOCS on academic institutions:
Brand positioning of universities.
In my view, MOOCS are creating a dramatic shift in content branding as opposed to just the delivery aspect. What do I mean? Remember the famous, Intel inside. Computer processors were a pure commodity and users did not care about brands. Intel created a brand for a commodity, which manufactures could not ignore since consumers cared. With the exception of a relatively small number of universities, of the nearly 4000 universities and colleges most institutions are small regional brands with a very limited geographic radius of name recognition.
The Harvards, Stanfords and MIT's of this world are out of reach for most students. As a matter of fact, we are probably talking about the famous 1 % of undergraduate students. Ivy League Institutions account for 0.4 % of undergraduates, but we need to include more brands.
Now think of MOOCS as content with a brand. Econ 101 may not just be taught by Professor X at a regional universitity or college , but you are expecting Econ 101 based on the Harvard Curriculum and taught by a professor with name recognition from a famous university brand. You are expecting the equivalent of your Intel Chip inside.
(Not an advertisement for Intel)
College professors' standing will be devalued and they will evolve to tutors of branded content. You can already see that colleges are starting to give credit for MOOCS. Colleges will provide valuable support to instruct and test around the online content courses. Yet the "value creation" will more and more accrue to the MOOC provider as opposed to the attended college. You could easily move from college x to y.
What does that mean for our 4000 colleges ? The majority of colleges, in particular, the 2-year colleges, embrace the trend: contract the courses, accept the credit and build a focus on tutoring, coaching and mentoring.
As we all know, the wave of adjuncts professors (and for full disclosure, I enjoy being one of them) is already leading to highly uneven instruction levels. MOOC content will level the playing field and should raise the level of instruction across the board.
A few hundred universities will have to decide whether MOOCS will offer an important branding opportunity for them. The investment will be signficant, but it will be critical for these institutions to offer the opportunities to their faculty, students and for the long-term health of the brand. The objective: Create a defined online brand with inexpensive accessible content. You want to draw your alumni to your courses, engage local high schools, focus on a pool for future students, create specific niche content appealing to your regional or subject specific audience. Think of the initiative as a broader-based "executive training" initiative to strengthen your brand recognition.
Universities will be investing in your long-term health as an institution and brand. Don't expect a direct Return on your Investment, but a long-term pay off.
If you want to read another article on the future of MOOCS, here is an interesting piece from the New York Times. New York Times:Colleges-turn-to-crowd-sourcing-courses
