Is Technology the Answer to Rising College Costs?

In the past 25 years, according to a recent report, college tuition and fees increased 439 percent, while median household incomes only increased 147 percent. At an Education Sector forum Tuesday in D.C., panelists discussed some of the major problems driving the high cost of college education and whether instructional technology offers some relief.

According to panelists, new technologies can cut the cost of higher ed., at least in terms of creating more cost-effective general education or 101 courses. In particular, a program called SMARTTHINKING, which uses tutors and online learning platforms to support students and instructors, is being adapted by colleges and universities across the country. Programs like SMARTTHINKING and Virginia Tech's Math Emporium allow institutions to serve a large number of students while reducing labor costs.

Academia is inherently labor-intensive, but panelists said that the current paradigm of stacking very high-paying administrative positions and then ballooning the number of adjunct professors teaching general education courses is feeding problems of skyrocketing cost and variable quality of education delivered.

More transparent management, clearly defined learning outcomes, and adopting beneficial and cost-effective instructional technologies would drive down the cost of these institutions, according to the panelists.

Martin Snyder of the American Association of University Professors and Ed. Sector's Kevin Carey agreed that higher education needs transparent learning outcomes so that consumers have clear and consistant evidence of the value of the education they're getting. "Colleges need to compete on value, not price. Currently, if your prices are high, you look like a better school. The standard needs to be how well students are learning," added Carey.

Carey, along with Burck Smith, CEO of SMARTTHINKING, sees a larger role for policymakers as drivers of cost efficiency in higher education."There's a creeping privatization of public money," said Carey. "Institutions accept less state money, but want more autonomy."

"We need to treat higher ed. as a market," said Burck. "Let the money follow the students, not the institution. Create one price, and don't allow a bunch of hidden fees, like very expensive textbooks, for example."

"Policymakers need to realize there are more opportunities for efficiency and cost-saving and insist on this," added Carey. "They've accepted that college will just be increasingly expensive. Agreed-upon learning objectives allow smaller schools and community colleges to compete with big universities. They can demonstrate, here's what you'll learn, here's what it'll cost."