The Stanford “Introduction to AI” Course - the sign of a disruptive innovation?
Over on the JISC Observatory website a recent interview with Seb Schmoller has just been published in which he talks about his experiences - from the perspective of an online distance educator - of the recent large scale open online course "Introduction to AI" run in association with Stanford University. As the interview unfolded it occurred to me that the aspects of the course that had struck Seb as being of potentially profound importance fitted the criteria for a "low end disruptive innovation" in the terminology of innovation theorist Clayton M Christensen. Low end disruption refers to the way apparently well-run businesses could be disrupted by newcomers with cheaper but good-enough offerings that focus on core customer needs and often make use generic off-the-shelf technologies.
Interesting stuff to ponder...
Hi Adam
Spot on with this observation. Another sign of a disruption is the scornful response of the incumbents. From ice factories, the horse and cart and dolly blue to PCs, low cost airlines and the Kodak fiasco it's the same story. Interesting that disruption in HE featured in the JISC 2010 'Dragon's Den' and the CETIS 2010 keynote by Anya Kamanetz!
MIT are also going to be offering cheap online courses ('MITx').
If you've not already read it, I'm sure you'd enjoy this analysis of the potential implications: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/envisioning-a-post-campus-america/253032/