There is an interesting article over at Mashable about several higher education initiatives that utilize social media to create low or no-cost educational opportunities for participants.  Thought the title of the article, “In the Future, the Cost of Education Will Be Zero”, suggests an unrealistic point, the examples in the article still cites actual ways that higher education is changing its delivery methods.  It makes sense that costs cannot simply continue to escalate when we live in a time where technology can easily enable ways to drive them down.  Perhaps social media is part of the economic check and balance that will force higher education institutions to get more creative in their delivery to preserve the possibility of access for all.

Here are the ideas mentioned in the article:

• The United Nations University of the People:  a one hundred percent online institution, and utilizes open source courseware and peer-to-peer learning to deliver information to students without charging tuition
• The Open CourseWare Initiative:  An MIT program that has been followed by other institutions as well wherein they make about 1,900 free courses available through the OpenCourseWare program with materials also posted on other social media sites
• FlatWorldKnowldge.com:  A web-based service that offers free, CC-licensed textbooks and study materials, but charges a fee for paper copies

Have you seen any other examples of ways to drive higher education costs down using social media? Please share.