Formal education, higher education in particular, is currently structured in a way that does not conform to what we know about how people learn. This is unsatisfactory from a learning perspective as well as a business perspective. There is little sense in pursuing revenue from a model that has low perceived value. Therefore, revising business models to accommodate effective learning is desirable. The challenge is to define a model that moves towards the ideal while recognizing the existing pressures that would resist change. In this document we outline the problem, propose a solution, develop the components, and describe the benefits.
We start with a characterization of the standard, traditional model of text, quizzes, lecture, and exams or tests:
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This model includes: lectures that largely re-state, and sometimes clarify and expand on, the knowledge in the text; quizzes that are based upon the text; and tests based upon the quizzes which provide a final evaluation of the learning. Many times, the quizzes and the tests are provided along with the text, to ensure correspondence. Ideally, from the instructor’s point of view, the quizzes and tests can be graded by the system to save the instructor time.
The following figure shows the elements of the standard model in more abstract terms:
Here we have identified the text as an information resource, quizzes as formative assessment to let learners know how they are performing, the lecture as the role of the instructor, and tests as summative assessment to characterize the learner's outcomes. This abstraction will give us a framework through which to think about how to improve the process of learning. But first we need to think about where the faults lie in this model.
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