Case 3: The future university Ricardo van Gijzen: 361522 What would you advise the university manager

from the case to do? A large problem that occurs when developing online education is the use of a business model that makes it both valuable for the universities and the students (in terms of lower student loans and success in employment. Selection: A selection of the best students after an admission test (like certain law firms only accept Harvard law students). The EUR accepts only students with certain standards (GPA with a bachelor of applied science or a high school VWO diploma). The selection procedure for RSM is critical as it determines a certain threshold. In the end phase this might reflect on the image RSM has at potential employers. Knowledge: What package of online courses should RSM provide? This is question that determines a large part of the quality of the online program. In my opinion, there are currently some lectures that can easily be provided through a webcast or other online medium (such as a statistical course in the bachelor provides) (Laseter, T. 2012) To make online education viable van Alstyne (2013) listed five main stakeholders that would have an important role in the existence of and participation in online education. Firstly the State with state subsidies. Secondly, the students can pay a tution as is currently the business model of RSM. The third party (and in my opinion the most interesting one) are the employers. The employers can provide recruiting services, custom courses based on allignment of the companies shortages or current mismatches in recruiting and continuing education where current employees create courses for employees as this might be cheaper than hiring new employees. Fourthly, the online education could be created with sponsors resulting in problem-sponsored learning. Finally, there is the possibility to creat a syndication as is done in the news paper industry where the best article is reprinted with the copywrights of the related newspaper. RSM could create a syndication with other universities and provide their best online courses combined in one program. My advice to the university manager would be combine the online courses with employers. The employers can tap into new talent that comes out of this online program and from the point of view from the university, the program is mostly funded through the company. For example, Udacity uses a recruitment program with their database to combine partner companies preferences (like Facebook, Google and Amazon) with suitable candidates from their program (van Alstyne 2013). Suppose we are going to combine online education (whether its MOOCs or otherwise) with formal university education: What aspect or presence would you advise to emphasize and why? Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) consists of three presences: Cognitive, Social and Teaching. Within this inquiry of communication medium, cognitive presence is the most important factor to success (Garrison, D. 1999). This element can be seen as to what extend

the participant constructed meaning by the communication. In my opinion cognitive presence is most important factor of the three as the aim of education is transferring knowledge and making it applicable in real life/company situations. With a combination of online and offline education, the transfer of knowledge should result in cognitive presence which is an important part in critical thinking. This aspect of cognitive presence can be seen as the ultimate goal in higher education (Garrison, D. 1999). The transfer of education can be executed in two ways: verbal (face-to-face) or text-based. Both mediums have richness in terms of reaching the targeted goals of the communication. Therefore, I would suggest some sort of hybrid construction where RSM provides the opportunity for text-based communication in online education when this is most efficient (in most cases where no personal feedback is necessary).

Could social media be used in such a way that it affords learning in the domain of business education? How? When some participates are active in an online course the question is what their motivation was to take that particular course. This motivation can be for example extrinsic in the form of credits as part of an elective program or intrinsic when a participant is really passionate or interested in a topic. For the future university of RSM, I would suggest that the online course (as is in line with the current curricula) should be based on credits that lead to a certain degree (extrinsic motivation). The main reason for this is that most parties in higher education rely on the current/traditional educational system (nationally and internationally). However, the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) has potential to support self regulating students that arrive in the online education world. This environment might be a factor to deviate from the traditional platforms. The use of social media in an online educational system for RSM could provide the in class discussions except through the use of social media instead of face-to-face discussions in a physical classroom. The PLEs provide students with a way to determine their own pace and way of learning. (Dabbagh, N. 2012) The benefit for RSM is that each student will study in a way that they are comfortable with. RSM creates the program but through the PLEs, the face-to-face moments can be brought to a minimum. This is necessary as with online education, as students can be enrolled from anywhere in the world (provided they suffice the admission requirements RSM stated), without the physical restraint of room occupation on campus. Another argument to include the use of social media for the RSM online courses is the boundary between formal and informal learning. The PLEs (study in an informal way) can be used to add to the formal learning. The roll of the PLE however, is determined by the student itself. The student is responsible for his/her own learning experience (Dabbagh, N. 2012).

References
Dabbagh, N., & Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(1), 3-8. doi: ttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.06.002

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(23), 87-105. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6 Laseter, T. (2012). The Universitys Dilemma. Strategy + business magazine, 69, Retrieved from http://www.strategy-business.com/media/file/00147-The-Universitys-Dilemma.pdf. van Alstyne, M. (2013). Money Models for MOOCs. Communications of the ACM vol. 56 no.8 , 25-28