Thought Leaders in Online Education: Becky Takeda-Tinker, President of Colorado State University Global Campus (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: The other trend that I have noticed is that there is a lot of online education going on in healthcare, for example in nursing training and medical technician training.

Becky Takeda-Tinker: I think technology has advanced where you can create 3D and 4D images.

Sramana Mitra: We have a company in our portfolio that actually does medical simulations.

Becky Takeda-Tinker: Our science lab uses some of that. Our business courses have interactive case studies. That technology has advanced to be able to really help the learning in an interactive and engaging way. We just did a big degree program for our sister campus in construction management. The technology pieces that we were able to integrate for various pieces of construction through technology have allowed the students to do it online.

Sramana Mitra: In a lot of those cases, you can learn the theory online but there is always practical, hands-on learning. That’s where the apprenticeship and internships are important. We are going very rapidly into the age of machine learning, robotics, and AI. How are you factoring all that into your choices of what to train students in? A lot of jobs are not just going to be there in another decade or two.

Becky Takeda-Tinker: I think this goes back to why low cost, high-quality online education is going to be increasingly important. The trends are happening faster. The life cycles are faster. Technology has really sped things up. The ability to adapt to those trends, embrace them, and provide the training is going to be increasingly important. We look at those trends all the time.

We just launched the Analytics degree program. We are looking at AI. We don’t receive state funds. It was part of the statute in order for Global to be created. We have managed to be very good at what we do in order to be here today at the size that we are. We don’t create niche programs. We create programs that can be used and enjoyed by students across the nation, and actually around the world. We have students in every state and 55 countries.

Sramana Mitra: That’s not the point. For example, a lot of the training that you’re doing in IT, a lot of that is going to get automated. There is even going to be automatic code generators. There is a lot of stuff that require people doing them going away. There’s some amount of forward thinking that is going to be required to think through stuff. You spend $40,000 to get a degree and then you use that degree for four years. Then what?

Becky Takeda-Tinker: That really is lifelong learning. You just don’t stop after you get your degree. We come out with new certificate programs about six times a year. We are coming out with new things as the market trends show that there is a need. We are continually reaching out to our graduates and sharing with them the new market data.

We have these courses that can support that. Staying stagnant is not just possible. By keeping the cost of education low and keeping it fully accessible no matter what you have going on in your life, you will need to continually learn. It’s no more just, “I got my Bachelor’s degree. I can wait five years. Maybe I’ll get my Master’s degree.” Now it’s, “In my area of technology, I really need to be looking at robotics.”

Sramana Mitra: Learning robotics is not a drop-of-the-hat kind of thing. Anyway, great. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Thought Leaders in Online Education: Becky Takeda-Tinker, President of Colorado State University Global Campus
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