In his latest op-ed Thomas Friedman shares what he learned about the future of MOOCs at the recent conference “Online Learning and the Future of Residential Education.” The following are a few points I found most compelling:

• Friedman quotes historian Walter Russell Mead, writing higher education will move from a model of  “time served” to “stuff learned.” 
• Blended learning will optimize learning in and out of the classroom. Today’s college students spend classroom-time getting lectured at and their time at home studying for a test. In the near future, at-home studying will be reserved for students to master basic skills at their own pace and time in the classroom will be spent applying their basic knowledge in labs and discussions.

MOOCs are nondiscriminatory, free, and available wherever you can take your device and have an internet connection. In 2013, a laptop, a smartphone, and a wireless connection are not rarities, however, neither are data caps. Data caps are the monthly limits put on the amount of data a person can use on their device. Data caps are also proving to be another layer to the digital divide.  In the article “Caps on Data Use Dim Online Learning’s Bright Future,” the writers explain how someone with a low-cost data plan will quickly hit their data maximum taking a “free” online course:

Both Verizon and AT&T offer “low cost” plans that bundle unlimited voice and texting with a gigabyte of data consumption for $40 or $50 per month. However, if you tried to stream video lectures on that connection, you’d reach the data cap after about three hours and then face fees of $15 per gigabyte. If you tried to complete a course with 15 hours of video a month, your phone bill could arrive with as much as $70 in extra fees.

Providing a free quality college education to all is a progressive and not so impossible ideal, but improving accessibility and affordability for the devices and connections needed to take a free course are lagging far behind. Will MOOCs really bring more education to more people? Though online learning is still in its infancy, we know:

• Graduate students have high success rates in online learning.
• Undergraduates are more likely to struggle in an online learning environment.
• Emerging studies show employers are less likely to hire someone with a degree from an online university than a traditional university.

Over the next few years, Piper moved around, got married to her husband Kevin, and moved back to Montana where her son Trystan was born. After Trystan’s birth, Piper realized that her financial decisions were no longer just about her wants and needs. So, in 1995 she decided to return to MSU Bozeman. However, her life quickly became filled with stressors that kept her from her schooling and she dropped out again in 1998.

In 2001, Kevin was diagnosed with colon cancer. Piper helped take care of Kevin until he passed away in 2003. To support herself and her son, Piper started a cleaning business in Denver and started cleaning for friends who recommended her to their friends. Piper then built a cleaning business. When the economy took a downturn in 2008, Piper lost more than half of her clients. In addition, Piper was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. At 42, Piper went back to school for the third time, knowing that she needed to get a job using her brain rather than her back.

Piper recently graduated from Metropolitan State College of Denver with a major in journalism and a minor in history. She was able to go to school full time and attend college full time for two years. When Piper’s car broke down midway through her first year, Piper used her student ID/public transportation pass to get to jobs. She started at 4am and sometimes didn’t get home until 7 or 8pm. But, in that year and a half, she never cancelled a job over transportation, and only cancelled for illness twice. Piper’s experience has given her the confidence to start her own writing and editing business, Zippy Wizard Redaction.

In 2009, the unemployment rate for those holding a bachelor’s degree was 5.2% compared with those who only had a high school diploma at 9.7%. Men and women who earned a college degree also made nearly two times as much as high school graduates.  America needs many more high school graduates and we need many more college graduates to succeed in a flat world where educated people in third world countries are ready and willing to contribute to the global economy.

These are hard economic times and the surge in enrollments is proof that displaced workers and non-traditional students realize they will be better off with a degree than without one.. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, three-fourths of today’s students don’t fit the description of what most consider a “traditional student,” someone under the age of 25 who went to college directly out of high school. In the same study, researchers found 49% of today’s students are enrolled part-time, 38% have full-time work, and 27% have dependents.   At community colleges where enrollments of this population is the highest, students are taught by sixty-five percent adjunct faculty.

1. Study space and time. Carve out a quiet place at home or in the library at school which can by your refuge for learning, grounding and reflection.  You’ll need to make  a significant commitment to studying so you’ll have to find ways to cut time from your current schedule whether that is time on the phone, time on FaceBook or time watching TV.

2. Basic math, reading, and writing skills. Many students spend their first two years being remediated in these areas.   These areas are foundational to the rest of the courses students take in college.  Ideally, these skills would have been mastered in high school, or well before.  As a nation, we need high school graduates to achieve these basic skills while they are still in high school.

3. Technology in the classroom. Students are required to navigate the internet and work with word-processors, PowerPoint, and mixed media.  This is world of hybrid learning.   You will be expected to learn just as much through on-line resources, some of which come with your textbooks, as you will in class.   Be an active participant with these tools and use them to prepare questions for class and points of clarification for your teacher after class.  Your teacher will admire and respect your initiative if you come to class prepared and you spend the time to clarify what you don’t know.

4. Balancing Life and School. College will open doors for you the rest of your life.  You may need to make sacrifices in the short run—with friends, family members, your favorite TV shows, etc—to stay on task and focused until you earn your degree.  For many people, college requires a “heads down” all-out ability to concentrate and study while juggling other important life priorities like children and work.

5.  Take a student success class. Student success classes are designed to help you create a community of friends on campus, show you important campus resources, and help you understand who you are, what you want out of college and career and the habits to make that happen.   I co-author a book called KEYS TO SUCCESS:  Analytical, Creative and Practical Intelligence.  If your campus doesn’t have a course, buy this book and work through it in the weeks before school starts.  It may be the most important book you buy as it will teach you how to study effectively for all of your other classes.

College, no matter where you go, is worth the money you will pay, the time it will take and the sacrifices you will make.   A college degree tells employers that you are a finisher, that you can juggle competing priorities and that you want to make something of yourself in this economy and any other. So, if you don’t yet have a college degree, summon your courage, work through your fears, and put a stake in the ground about what you really want out of your life.  College is the best indicator that you can make your dreams reality.