From a Red House Off Campus, Georgetown Tries to Reinvent Itself

Georgetown University is as old as the United States Constitution, and its history and reputation have long been great strengths. Then came MOOCs, and new questions about the value of traditional higher education, which prompted storied colleges all over the country to ask themselves, "What are we going to do now?"At Georgetown the answer wasn’t just to try MOOCs (which it did) or start a few online degree programs (which it also did). Leaders decided to attempt to reimagine the core undergraduate experience, by setting up a kind of academic skunkworks in a small red house just steps from the campus quad, where a banner over the fireplace reads, "Yes. A university can reinvent itself."