Alternate Business Plan needed for Higher Education
The Age posted an interesting article on how Hoyts cinema in Australia was experimenting with providing an IMax gaming experience to its customers.
Upon reflecting on this, I remembered the last time my wife and I went to see a movie. It was a Sunday afternoon. In the 100+ seats cinema, there were only 4 people, including us. No wonder cinema needs to find alternate revenue source from their asset (the huge cinema).
Going to cinema has become a special ocassion, when you want to experience something in addition to just watching a movie. Nowadays, most people going to cinema are for additional reasons, may be watching a movie is an excuse itself. It would be much cheaper, comfortable, relaxing to watch a DVD at your own home!
The same will happen to the large lecture hall at university. When I was doing my first degree over 30 years ago, over 300 students crowded in a large lecture hall to listen to the lecture. Today, if the course material is available online, many would prefer to access these material at their convenient time at their convenient location. I think it is an irreversible trend.
It does not mean that the face to face meeting places at a campus will no longer exist. It only means that the purpose of meeting is no longer just to get the information. It better serves some high value purpose that cannot be obtained in an online environment. Whether large lecture hall still has its value? I don't know. But I am quite sure that the utilisation of large lecture hall will be in a decline. These are huge investment. Higher Education should start developing business plan to utilise these asset!
Upon reflecting on this, I remembered the last time my wife and I went to see a movie. It was a Sunday afternoon. In the 100+ seats cinema, there were only 4 people, including us. No wonder cinema needs to find alternate revenue source from their asset (the huge cinema).
Going to cinema has become a special ocassion, when you want to experience something in addition to just watching a movie. Nowadays, most people going to cinema are for additional reasons, may be watching a movie is an excuse itself. It would be much cheaper, comfortable, relaxing to watch a DVD at your own home!
The same will happen to the large lecture hall at university. When I was doing my first degree over 30 years ago, over 300 students crowded in a large lecture hall to listen to the lecture. Today, if the course material is available online, many would prefer to access these material at their convenient time at their convenient location. I think it is an irreversible trend.
It does not mean that the face to face meeting places at a campus will no longer exist. It only means that the purpose of meeting is no longer just to get the information. It better serves some high value purpose that cannot be obtained in an online environment. Whether large lecture hall still has its value? I don't know. But I am quite sure that the utilisation of large lecture hall will be in a decline. These are huge investment. Higher Education should start developing business plan to utilise these asset!
Tags: Higher Education Resources
posted by Albert Ip | 8:50 pm
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