Online Substitutes Shake Up Higher Ed
High costs in traditional higher education force students to look for substitutes to learn new skills and progress their career.
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Traditional universities face competition from online alternative education programs.
These programs provide consumers with substitutes for learning, connecting, and progressing their career.
Deloitte conducts an analysis called “Significant risks facing higher education” where they identify that an increasing “education delivery mix" is a threat to traditional higher education.
According to Deloitte, this “includes expansion of new or existing part-time programs, Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs), independent-study, accelerated executive programs, and shorter certificate programs.”
Related to substitutes, investor and entrepreneur, Balaji Srinivasan makes the following observation:
As the internet disrupts higher education, we are seeing increasing variation in offerings.
From 4 hour MOOCs to 4 week cohort-based courses to 4 month bootcamps, the alternative education revolution gives students additional options.
MyMBA is positioned as a substitute for traditional business school. We strive to provide the education, credential, and connections that business school offers at 1% of the cost.
MyMBA does this through The Three Cs:
Courses: We take business school courses from top programs. These courses are taught by prestigious business school professors through Coursera.
Content: We create content and publish online to prove our learning. This serves to create a credential tied to each individual's person brand. We strive to build a portfolio of learning to build social proof of our interests, knowledge, and ambition.
Connections: We consistently connect with others in our industries on the internet. We leverage the courses and content as a way of building meaningful connections.
The threat of substitutes shape competition in the higher education industry.