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  • 5 Things Netflix Streaming Can Teach Higher Ed

    By Joshua Kim October 26, 2010 8:45 pm EDT

    5 Things Netflix Streaming Can Teach Higher Ed:

    1. Replace Yourself: Offering unlimited streaming for $8.99 a month (1 physical DVD out at a time) may seem like the best way to cannibalize a core business of charging people $16.99 a month for 3 DVDs. But Netflix knew that if it did not take this step then someone else would. Much better to grow the customer base by offering a superior product at a good price than to try to hold on to a limited number of customers using a legacy product. Where can we replace ourselves in higher ed, before someone else does it for us?

    2. Service Tomorrow: In moving from sending discs by the USPS to offering unlimited streaming, Netflix is positioning its service for tomorrow. Nobody doubts that in the medium term the physical discs sent in the mail will go away. Netflix is smart to build up their service, brand, technology, know-how and technology for tomorrow's customers - even if this leaves some money on the table for today. Do we have a good idea how education will be constructed, delivered and consumed in the future?

    3. Experience, Not Technology: Subscribing to Netflix is about watching movies, not about putting shiny discs into players. According to Wikipedia, Netflix offers 17,000 movies "on demand" (streaming) compared to 100,000 physical discs available for rental. The streaming catalogue will continue to grow, quickly moving to replace the mailed service. The focus is on the movies, not the delivery mechanism. Netflix creates a great movie watching experience, and lets the customer choose the method in which the movies will be consumed. How can we in higher ed focus on the experience of learning, as opposed to the delivery mechanism?

    4. Be Fearless: I'm betting that moving to an unlimited streaming model was a scary proposition for Netflix, as it subverts its core business model (the more you pay, the more movies you get). But Netflix was somehow able to move beyond their fears and offer the service. How can we be more fearless in higher ed, and be willing to take risks for our students?

    5. Design For Your Customer: Streaming Netflix is available on multiple devices, from game consoles to dedicated streaming players, to blue-ray players, to HDTV sets (built-in), to home theaters and mobile devices. The iPad app is amazing. Are we in higher ed offering enough choices for how our students' want consume and participate in learning?

    What do you think Netflix streaming can teach us in higher ed?

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Comments on 5 Things Netflix Streaming Can Teach Higher Ed

  • WOW!
  • Posted by Professor Bell , Professor/Business Division at Atlanta Metropolitan College on October 27, 2010 at 9:00am EDT
  • You are making me think about an improved way of teaching and helping students learn.

    The Netflix example really puts things into perspective.
  • agreed
  • Posted by Carrie , Assistant professor at City Colleges on October 27, 2010 at 9:30am EDT
  • I particularly like the idea that we need to focus on learning and not on the delivery system. We need to put our expertise into designing learning experiences for our students and along with that, designing assessment practices that will help us to see that they have learned what we have set out to teach.

    This is our mission. How we get there (delivery system) will change over time, but the mission should remain the same.

    I also like the idea of planning for the "students of the future". The students of the future are already here. We need to meet their learning needs now.
  • Play IP hardball
  • Posted by Dorothea Salo on October 27, 2010 at 11:15am EDT
  • As noted in http://dpakman.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/why-netflix-won/ , another key to Netflix's success has been not meekly knuckling under to the content industries.

    We could learn a lot from this in higher ed.
  • Old ways of thinking
  • Posted by Julie on October 27, 2010 at 12:15pm EDT
  • I have been wondering for some time why we persist in 'age-cohort' thinking for children. It's a holdover from the mechanical/assembly line idea that all 7 year-olds are the same. They aren't, as we know. Are all the same level of reading? Do all have the same background? Let's deliver education to the student that they need, not what they're 'supposed' to be. The more advanced reader is bored, the lower functioning reader is frustrated when we use age as the criterion.
  • Posted by Eveningsun on October 27, 2010 at 2:00pm EDT
  • "What do you think Netflix streaming can teach us in higher ed?"

    Not much that we don't already know. We're not as hidebound as many seem to think. We've already shifted to a variety of teaching formats embracing a variety of formats and devices etc. And at least some people are exploring ways oif teaching-via-video-game....

    A couple of things to keep in mind:

    1. Even as Netflix profits by making movies available cheaply and conveniently, theaters have remained viable, even with steep increases in ticket prices. It seems people still find some sort of value-added in the big screen.

    2. We should be careful not to push analogies too far. Netflix has customers, higher ed does not. College is less like a traditional business than it is like therapy: success depends far more on the work done by the client/patient/student than on the "product" "delivered" by the "business." You can rent a film and then sit down for a couple of hours and get your money's worth--but you can't just purchase a true education.
  • Only 1/2 the equation...
  • Posted by Burck Smith , CEO at StraighterLine on October 27, 2010 at 3:30pm EDT
  • Netflix was successful because content streaming is a more efficient model of delivery AND they changed the movie rental pricing model. Instead of selling per movie, it sold movies as a subscription. The per-movie delivery cost and price dropped dramatically. To change education, price reductions need to follow from cost-reductions.
  • Are We a Content Delivery System or More?
  • Posted by Jim Greenberg , Director at SUNY Oneonta on October 27, 2010 at 4:00pm EDT
  • The content delivery part of what we do might learn something from Netflix, but there is a wee bit more to it no?
  • Netflix Takes Risks
  • Posted by StevenB on October 27, 2010 at 4:45pm EDT
  • Hey Josh. If you didn't already see this, see what the Heath Bros. have to say about Netflix in their latest column in Fast Co. I like the vitamin vs. aspirin analogy they set up. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/150/the-felt-need.html

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