On his Blog, widely read and respected VC Fred Wilson lauds DuoLingo’s new business model which is (previously reported on PSA): Give away the Education and charge for the Certification.
If this becomes widely successful, it is sure to change the landscape of online education – and maybe brick and mortar.
The freemium model where educational content is “free” and the certification costs, brings up a number of questions.
Such a model would put a lot of disruption pressure on all present forms and institutions that “handle” certification. It strikes me that somebody like Google or FaceBook, or as yet to be born startup, will innovate a portable, digital package of certification, that will be accepted by employers and for professional development rungs of advancement.
If so, the price of certification will fall dramatically, and will likely be “divorced” from the educational content providers. Doesn’t seem that this has been thought through… why would I pay large amounts for certification, which presently is the case for Higher Ed diplomas and degrees, and costly professional development certs if this present status quo could be disrupted?
Seems to me exactly the sort of thing that would be supported by huge aggregation of users, which could pay for costs by page visits, advertisements, membership, and sign up at least some important big employers to take their certs as gold.
Federal government hiring is massive…they’d be a good client for such a “Mobile Credential Package” service.
As with much of the coming disruptions, it’s going to be worked out among the various interests and parties, as to who can get favorable regulations setup under which to operate. Are we going to have net neutrality, for example?
These are going to be fought out between the present incumbents who make tons and tons of $$$ under present cert and degree process, and new players that arrive offering to blow that model to shreds.
Also there’s this re certification; Pearson works with AdvanceED, which it says represents a a LOT of schools and districts in US, but what does the word “represent” in this usage actually define or indicate?
They provide accreditation to all those 27K entities, and for what set of rubrics exactly, and how much do they charge, and if you are really big like Pearson, do you get special treatment by AdvancED for your schools?