Leadership in education with the disruptive force of distance learning:

Almost all past initiatives in distance education and the main goal of Institutions providing distance education, were most concerned with parity, which the traditional system would never accept.
To figure out the positioning strategy for the future of mobile technology based distance education, it is helpful to build on the key thoughts developed in the following classics:

1. Eric Hanushek : The Knowledge Capital of Nations
2. W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne : Blue Ocean Strategy:
3. Clayton Christensen :Disruptive Innovation, Disrupting Class, The Innovative University, ; also the Clarendon lectures at Oxford :
Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation – Clarendon Lectures …
https://www.youtube.com › watch
4. Chris Anderson : The Long Tail
5. Bertrand Cesvet: Conversational Capital – How to create stuff that people love to talk about.
6. Lou Carboune : Clued In : How to keep customers coming back again and again: a book on designing Experience
Salient features of disruptive innovation :

ALL INNOVATIVE IDEAS START OUT AS HALF-BAKED PROPOSITIONS.
— CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN, MICHAEL E. RAYNOR,
AND SCOTT D. ANTHONY

Michelle Weise gives an overview of what the term disruptive innovation means and the 6 telltale signs worth noting:
They target people who are nonconsumers or who are underserved by existing products.
The innovation is not as good as existing products, as judged by historical measures of performance.
They’re simpler to use, more convenient or affordable.
There is a technology enabler that can carry the new value proposition upmarket.
The technology is paired with a business model innovation that allows it to be sustainable.
Existing providers are motivated to ignore the new innovation and are not threatened at the outset.
Building on the above is my step by step process in 10 steps for succeeding in distance learning in the future:

A: If a distance learning initiative has to succeed, it must align to the Blue Ocean strategy and Eric Hanushek’s emphasis on skills and competencies that augment economic value. In today’s time, it would mean programs on Learning to learn, learning to think, better decision making, Coding for everybody, Computational Thinking, Tinkering with Raspberry Pi, Making, Bricolage etc. rather than offering lower quality versions of traditional UGC/AICTE qualifications, which are pretty much irrelevant and on way to become obsolete.
B: The knowledge, skills and competencies acquired by the learners should be verified with a system of badges for micro-credentialing, especially in threshold concepts of the domain.
C: The learning access device should be a mobile Smartphone today, Smartwatches tomorrow and wearables like Oculus Rift or Google cardboard in future.
D: The technology enabler is mobile technology, such as mobile Internet, responsive websites, mobile Apps and augmented and virtual reality.
E: The new age Distance learning Institute can be entirely accessible on a mobile phone, with specific mobile Apps and a responsive website. Every lecture can be converted to an App for which the design has been described in another blog.
F: The registration as a student can be done either from Facebook,Google+, Twitter or with an email address. The profile can then be built over time, adding photograph, address, mobile phone number, previous credentials. An optional detailed learner profile on multiple intelligence, learning style can be created, allowing for adaptive and personalised learning.
G: Instead of a few long term programs with extremely limited number of seats in each program,the Institute should offer a large number of shorter programs requiring about a week of learning effort ( the long tail). Learners can transact these modules in sequences that are better aligned to their learning needs. This can be expanded to cover all stages of the life-span, addressing the needs of life-long learners.
H: In future, it will not be the recognition by authorities or the number of stars given by NAAC that will drive learner enrolment, but the quality of the learning experience at the Institute. Hence the significance of designing the learning experience.
Effective and enhanced social learning will be a completely new dimension of this learning experience.
I: To enhance enrolment, mere announcement of the programs will not be enough, and mass media advertising is too diffuse. Use of social media to spread the word is very important. But while social media may provide the means of spreading a message, developing the conversational capital, by creating the eight engines of conversational capital is critical.
J: The organisational structure of the ODLI of the future will be very different from the existing models and will reflect the lean philosophy. Instead of whole time salaried faculty and administrators, all staff will be in the nature of independent contractors who will receive benefits and compensation according to their contributions, with no upper financial limits. This will lead to efficiencies with which the traditional Institutions will not be able to compete.