Bringing Convenience and Open Source Methods To Higher Education 165
Business Week has a piece discussing the effects internet-based technology and open sharing are having on the standards of higher education. The author says every product's success or failure depends on its fidelity — the overall quality of experience — and convenience. Since the internet has made the sharing of even expert-level knowledge convenient, he wonders how long it will be until some school or company raises the fidelity enough to have their degrees accepted alongside those of professional-grade colleges. Quoting:
"Once in a while, a market gets completely out of balance. Forces conspire to prevent either a high-fidelity or high-convenience player from emerging. All the offerings crowd around one end or the other. Eventually, someone nails a disruptive approach. Customers and competitors rush in and the marketplace wonders why that great idea didn't come sooner. The higher education market is a lot like that. For centuries the university model dominated because nothing else worked. No technology existed that might deliver an interactive, engaging educational experience without gathering students and teachers in the same physical space. ... These days broadband Internet, video games, social networks, and other developments could combine to create an online, inexpensive, super-convenient model for higher education. You wouldn't get the sights and sounds of a campus, personal contact with professors, or beer-soaked frat parties, but you'd end up with the knowledge you need and the degree to prove it."
Erm.... Labs? (Score:4, Insightful)
Small problem with that idea in the physical sciences, a simulated lab isn't much use for hands on experience.
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Several of hte instructors at the community college I worked at developed kitchen labs, all safe, but demonstrative. There's even a company out there (forget the name at the moment) that has a chem lab pre-created, and they even will accept liability for all experiments therein. Granted, no cesium in a fish tank, but still educational.
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Small problem with that idea in the physical sciences, a simulated lab isn't much use for hands on experience.
Sometimes the physics lab doesn't work the way it says in the book.
The simulation always works the way it says in the book.
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Small problem with that idea in the physical sciences, a simulated lab isn't much use for hands on experience.
Sometimes the physics lab doesn't work the way it says in the book.
The simulation always works the way it says in the book.
And having someone who you can ask questions to, when something doesn't work the way it should (when you are first learning), is more valuable than an experiment that works exactly right, every time.
Goodbye discovery (Score:2)
The simulation always works the way it says in the book.
Exactly: supposing the physics in the book happens to be wrong? How are you ever going to discover anything new without doing real experiments? Simulations are a useful educational tool but learning how to do real experiments is essential. If we relied on simulations we would never have discovered relativity or quantum mechanics because every simulation would have been made to agree with Newtonian mechanics.
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Sometimes the physics lab doesn't work the way it says in the book.
Good point, we run the risk of raising a generation of scientists whom will not have the experience of "massaging the data" until it matches the predetermined answer... Obviously unacceptable...
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That's not the only small problem. One should distinguish among 'data', 'information', and 'knowledge'. Data is raw stuff (text, graphs, etc.). Information is relative to the individual, i.e., you must know the language in which the text is written to unlock the content, you must understand the axes, etc. to unlock the content of a graph. Knowledge is information in the context of a structure allowing one to predict or extract information from other information. The boundaries are also a bit fuzzy. (There a
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Small problem with that idea in the physical sciences, a simulated lab isn't much use for hands on experience.
Of course any degree that requires instruction with access to various facilities; labs, operating rooms, a kitchen, or others; will, probably, always need the students to attend a physical location (though I reckon at some point there will be certain things that can be done through VR).
However any study that is entirely academic, say certain fields of math, computer science, social studies, arts, or any field that only requires basic equipment that is available for a reasonable price at a local store of
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For stuff like that, some online universities rent out a lab somewhere and have students come in I believe.
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'real' university labs are nothing like 'timmy tries chemistry' playsets ... mind that
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$10k can buy a lot of "timmy tries chemistry sets". There will be some good experiments that you can't do (for safety reasons, or equipment limitations) from home, but you could do some longer running experiments.
Teamwork would be a problem, as most students need to learn lab practices from other students (with a bit of input from the tutor).
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$10k doesn't buy all of these dispersed students access to your MRI machine, or scanning tunnelling electron microscope, or large radio telescope.........
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Every undergrad chemistry student at my Univ used nmr and mass-spec by their sophomore year.
More than just labs (Score:2)
And how many undergrad classes use those things?
Perhaps not those things but certainly you should not be allowed to get a physics degree without knowing how to operate an oscilloscope, measure e/m for an electron and perform other classic experiments. All of these require expensive or delicate (or both) equipment that would add thousands of dollars onto a University education.
There are solutions: the Open University in the UK holds lab sessions in local universities. This takes several weeks of the student's time: effectively they do all the lab work
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What planet are you on where exists such a thing as a "chemistry set"...much less one expressly designed for children? Are you mad, sir? Sounds like a liability nightmare, not even counting the ones who do it right and synthesize chemicals right there in their houses, with no plan for disposal. No vent hood, no fire extinguisher, no eye protection...seriously who came up with an idea like this? 'Timmy tries chemistry' indeed.
Or this one... http://www.flickr.com/photos/eklektikos/47549033/ [flickr.com] I can just see it now.. Front page news about terrorists learning how to make dirty bombs at home. And people wonder why science is getting more and more sidelined...
Re:Erm.... Labs? (Score:5, Interesting)
Really..
Chemistry degree here. I've yet to see a 'timmy tries chemisty' set that has a rotovap, access to a nmr, mass-spec or X-ray crystallography. I had hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment at my disposal, and this was a univ with a chem department of about 60 people, including students and faculty. The standard equipment that each student was issued in Organic cost well over a thousand.
Get real.
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However, a $300 Dell laptop is more than enough for a degree in software, and students are pretty much assumed to have one already for an online course. Maybe we should start there first.
Re:Erm.... Labs? (Score:5, Insightful)
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"Alma mater" is Latin for "nurturing mother". A University is not a web portal. It's a p
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While I agree with your point (I stayed at university long enough to get a PhD, so I'm naturally biased towards believing that it is beneficial), a university is not the only way of getting that kind of education. My stepfather is a good counterexample. He never went to university, but instead spent several years backpacking around the world (picking fruit and doing similar jobs to earn enough to make the next leg of the journey). He met all sorts of interesting people doing that, and read whatever was a
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You're absolutely right. Same goes for math. I mean, where are people going to find dry erase boards large enough to demonstrate an entire differential equation problem? And don't even get me started on English. Where are they going to find all those books? Online? Hah!
I remember my chemistry labs taking up about 1/4th of the actual coursework, and I never found them particularly illuminating. I also remember doing a physics lab, but I got even less out of that. Yep, gravity works. Okay, friction s
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no but you could get 90% of the experience (and of course 0% of the beer) by having the frat house in secondlife
have the "beer" then wake up five minutes later redressed...
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Not sure about the US, but prices here in Canada seem to be roughly equivalent or a bit less than what you paid. My girlfriend just got finished telling me she's doing vet school on about $6000 a year for tuition and living expenses. Minimum wage is in the $8/hr range and she sometimes makes up to twice that. I know lots of people who put themselves through university with summer jobs and a small scholarship, loan or part time job.
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My girlfriend just got finished telling me she's doing vet school on about $6000 a year for tuition and living expenses.
She may have a large scholarship.
At a lot of expensive USA private schools (most of them if the sample with which I am familiar is representative) 10%+ receive enough scholarship money to pay about what a community college costs. (Still, $8000 is on the low end of that if you actually include living expenses; $8000 is about enough to rent a single bedroom in NYC.) But there is always the other 90%.
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The $6,000 is including scholarships and government loans.
And no, choosing one of the most expensive places on the planet to use as your standard for living expenses isn't really valid.
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$6000/year for everything?! Enjoy that while it l
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This leads increasing numbers of HS graduates to a get-a-degree-at-all-costs mentality. Combined with an increased access to huge lines of credit for college (as well as gov't subsidized work study and so forth), this leads to
tests? (Score:2, Insightful)
One potential problem:
How does the school prove the person who took whatever tests over the internet is the person they were said to be?
Another thing brick and mortar schools do is allow for some extremely basic filtering of students...students must be able to attend a classroom with other people, work collectively in some cases, and have some basic competition in general, without being too disruptive.
Otherwise, it's a no-brainer. Many brick and mortar schools now have some online component.
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The instructors I work with ask the same thing, but don't even flinch when I ask when the last time they checked a students ID in their physical class.
Only exceptions I've heard about have been the police academy courses (for background check, etc) and health related classes (nursing, nuke med, etc).
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I'm proctoring a test a week from now. We will check every student's ID. [...] Other people have mentioned actual in-class instruction being useless. As my students are getting ready to take their test, one of the main things I'm noticing is that I can't provide enough one-on-one instruction.
Exactly. Distance learning is most appropriate for those courses that are viable as huge lecture sections where IDs matter. Small classes allow the teacher to get to know the students as individuals. Of course, l
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Re:tests? (Score:4, Interesting)
I completed a degree program online. Took me three years to do it. The way they (sort of) got around this was to have actual sittings for exams in various places throughout the country for each semester. These exams covered bits from the entire previous semester and would be difficult to just waltz in and take without actually doing the coursework.
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Exactly, most reputable on-line schools have you take tests at a third party location.
I am currently taking classes on-line for my masters degree though Western Governor's University. I take the course exams at the same place I took my exams for my bachelors degree, at the Brigham Young University testing center. There isn't too much different. I keep in contact with my professors by e-mail. I have a syllabus and course material. I read the text books. I have an on-line community of people (students and tea
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For the one online class I took, I had to have a proctor.
Tired old argument (Score:2)
Funny you should ask about cheating. A recent study suggests that students on campus cheat more often than their online counterparts. I blogged about it here [elearners.com].
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Another thing brick and mortar schools do is allow for some extremely basic filtering of students...students must be able to attend a classroom with other people, work collectively in some cases, and have some basic competition in general, without being too disruptive.
Judging by some "educated" folks I've worked with in the past, this filtering must be "extremely basic" indeed. So minimal as to reach the "why bother" stage.
One sentence discredits the whole article (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, "partway there"? If someone came to me with a University of Phoenix degree, I would reply, "Well, that DOES prove you like to pay a lot of money for toilet paper."
The University Of Phoenix education is a complete and utter joke. What they teach is worthless and best and counterproductive at worst(and yes, I have seen some of the content of their masters programs, assignments that include algebra I was doing in 7th grade and homework questions like, "What is a MAN?")
These articles don't want to point out the fact that entrepreneurs have already tried, and failed pretty miserably, at taking on the higher education market before, and other than using the internet, I don't see much difference between what was tried then and what this guy is proposing.
Re:One sentence discredits the whole article (Score:5, Insightful)
These articles don't want to point out the fact that entrepreneurs have already tried, and failed pretty miserably, at taking on the higher education market before, and other than using the internet, I don't see much difference between what was tried then and what this guy is proposing.
The Open University in the UK did just that, and they did it really successfully.
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Their content may be (or have been) open access, but, as far as software goes, they require you to use Windows.
Moodle, iTunesU (Score:2)
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The Open University in the UK did just that, and they did it really successfully.
and you happened to be affiliated with this place, are you?
Once I read they 'convert publications into a PhD' I was thinking to pay another place to 'convert life experience into a PhD'. Because that latter was much cheaper.
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Once I read they 'convert publications into a PhD' I was thinking to pay another place to 'convert life experience into a PhD'.
A number of universities do that, and quite legitimately. It's much easier to spend a few years doing research and then write a thesis though; the "convert publications to PhD" route is for people who are effectively operating already well beyond the doctoral level and just haven't got the piece of paper yet.
Not affiliated to Open University (Score:2)
Re:One sentence discredits the whole article (Score:4, Insightful)
The University Of Phoenix education is a complete and utter joke. What they teach is worthless and best and counterproductive at worst(and yes, I have seen some of the content of their masters programs, assignments that include algebra I was doing in 7th grade and homework questions like, "What is a MAN?")
That doesn't matter, because what universities sell is not education but credentials.
After all, the internet as a whole provides a much richer educational environment than any university possibly could, "internet university" or not. (Indeed, classes in ordinary universities are also a joke, if you're accustomed to learning things without being forced.)
But just learning things won't help you get you a job. I have heard perfectly competent hackers talk about going back to get another degree (in computer science) even though they know they wouldn't learn anything there, because it would help them get higher-paying jobs.
So yeah, there's a market for credentials, and the less time you have to waste pretending to be learning what in fact you already know, the better.
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I'm going to agree and disagree. I did my BSc for the credentials, I'm doing my MSc for the education. While I could cover a large part of the curriculum via self learning, having the structure, feedback and the ability to learn outside the "self-taught vacuum" I consider to be very valuable products which I can only get in a bricks-and-mortar institution.
But yes, my end goal is to improve my job prospects since I'm heading into my 40s and given the common attitude to older people working at the code-face,
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Re:One sentence discredits the whole article (Score:4, Interesting)
Actuall, UofP is VERY good for certain types of degrees. Computer Science being one of them. While I don't have a degree from UofP, I have worked with IT people who do, and they were smart, motivated, well educated people.
Let's face it, you DO NOT need to physically be in a classroom to learn computer science. Hell, most old line universities are so far behind the IT curve that it's become a bit of a joke in the IT field.
Yes, there are some courses where you really do still need a physical location. Most of the physical sciences and medicine fall into that category. But for most other courses, there are no "labs" to go to. Why not virtualize them? Assuming it is done well (and like physical schools, there would be good and bad ones) there isn't any good reason why we shouldn't be able to it.
Unless of course you are a stodgy, dusty, moldy old Prof who can't change his or her ways and just want to rail against market forces performing the creative destruction they always do. In that case, all I can say is that it sucks to be you.
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I guess I'm just an elitist, but I found that people who never studied any real c
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Let's face it, you DO NOT need to physically be in a classroom to learn computer science. Hell, most old line universities are so far behind the IT curve that it's become a bit of a joke in the IT field.
The fact that you seem to believe that computer science is more than tangentially related to the IT field leads me to doubt your views have merit in this subject. Or do you also judge astronomy degrees by the glasswork skills of the graduates?
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"Let's face it, you DO NOT need to physically be in a classroom to learn computer science. Hell, most old line universities are so far behind the IT curve that it's become a bit of a joke in the IT field."
Computer science is not IT.
Cookie-cutter lower-level math and science courses (excluding labs) seem well suited for online learning, I agree.
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Computer science is not IT.
While that's true, it doesn't change the fact that remote learning of CS is entirely practical. All the labs you'll ever need can be done on your own laptop or remotely using ssh. Commercial collaboration tools are certainly good enough to support remote tutorials and lectures, access to the library isn't very valuable in undergraduate CS, and remote exam taking is possible (though they're also infrequent enough that requiring people to come in for that is reasonable).
The only part that would be hard is if
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>>The University Of Phoenix education is a complete and utter joke.
The majority of teachers in California have credentials from the University of Phoenix.
Canada (Score:2)
Canada has at least two fully accredited distance learning universities and a bunch of the regular ones offer distance learning courses. Athabasca [athabascau.ca] was founded sometime in the 70s or early 80s, I think, as an initiative by the provincial government to better provide education to remote areas. They used to use the mail extensively but switched to the Internet in the late 90s. The article seems to think this is somehow a new and revolutionary idea.
Correspondence is okay for part of an undergrad degree, and
Consider Star Trek... (Score:2)
As others have pointed out, this capability has already been embraced by higher education for certain coursework and certain students. It works well for professional certification activities, for instance, where mature students are pursuing specific aims. I took a graduate engineering course with full time students in the classroom and Raytheon engineers connecting via video from their own campus. Tests were remote, but lab exercises required they travel to the campus.
I have been responsible for remote o
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\
Conferences are another similar situation. I've attended and been involved in organizing numerous conferences. The one next month is 14 timezones away. Hundreds of people will still make the trip because of the value of talking to people face-to-face, and especially the value of talking to many people simultaneously face-to-face. Video links are also terrible at providing lucky chances for unplanned conversations. I can't count the number of productive partnerships that have germinated over a stale lunch and a cold beer in between sessions.
It's precisely this fact that makes me discourage students from online distance education whenever possible. Both in undergrad and grad school, I learned way more from random discussions, be they with other students or professors, than I ever did during the official class time. So much of an education is had by being around others who are also interested in the same things and eager to talk about it.
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Because it's so hard to find people to talk to on the internet??
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It's hard to find as great a concentration of intelligent people with an interest in a certain specialisation on the Internet as at a university. It's even harder to find a place with a high concentration of intelligent people with an interest in a certain specialisation and a lot of intelligent people working in a completely different field on the Internet.
I really don't think this is the case. Especially if you include "intelligent." For example, try to find a localized group that can compete with Undernet's #math for opportunities to talk about advanced math. I doubt one exists in the world; I certainly wouldn't expect to find one at arbitrary university. Certainly, if I had a math question, it would make more sense to go there than to a university. Especially at 3am.
There's a reason why so many math majors & grad students spend so much time on IR
Bringing Claude Shannon to higher education (Score:2)
try to find a localized group that can compete with Undernet's #math for opportunities to talk about advanced math. I doubt one exists in the world; I certainly wouldn't expect to find one at arbitrary university.
The internet is at every university already. Campus denizens are overrepresented in many/most/all online forums. It isn't a question of one or the other, but rather of maximizing the benefit from both styles of communication.
Regarding further examples of subjects difficult to convey over the in
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The internet is at every university already. Campus denizens are overrepresented in many/most/all online forums. It isn't a question of one or the other, but rather of maximizing the benefit from both styles of communication.
OK, but I'm not talking about "styles of communication," I'm talking about the communicating communities themselves. Are the best communities the product of local universities or the global village? It is going to depend on specifics, but usually the local community -- no matter what sort -- is not going to be able to compete.
It's just so much easier to form connections at light-speed than whatever the average speed of a human body is.
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I've replied to this thread a few too many times already. I guess I'm taking umbrage at Scott McNealy attempting to undermine the universities - already under severe attack from the lunatic fringe.
Are the best communities the product of local universities or the global village?
How does one discern the goodness of a community? Obviously most here (excluding trolls) value online communities for a range of purposes and filling various niches. The universities have been engaged with network issues since lo
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Are the best communities the product of local universities or the global village?
How does one discern the goodness of a community?
Arbitrarily. Here's one metric: where can I go to get a physics question answered? Who will answer my physics question fastest and in most detail? I don't think I will find the fastest answer at a university [online or not].
But by all means blog about it after class.
That's some smug attitude you got there, but here on slashdot, we write programs after class...
Although I have to say, there's a lot more value in any blog that people actually read
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Most of your response does not address my original posts at all.
A rather limited point of view to assign "original" thoughts to one's own post, and to rate everybody else's as derivative.
Me: How does one discern the goodness of a community?
Arbitrarily. Here's one metric: where can I go to get a physics question answered? Who will answer my physics question fastest and in most detail? I don't think I will find the fastest answer at a university [online or not].
No, you'll simply learn how to answer the q
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Starfleet Academy is just the US Naval Academy, adapted for space. Hogwart's is an idealized version of a British school for upper-class pinheads. I don't know how you draw a connection between these and real life.
The authors of such books and the directors of such movies are neither spacemen nor sorcerers. It is an explicit decision to model such dramatic schools against familiar analogues. Each of these fictional universes demonstrates vast imaginative variances from reality in other regards. It is p
One of these things is not like the other. (Score:2)
Consider the Star Fleet Academy (or Hogwarts or the Isle of Roke). If ever there was a situation ripe for distance learning, that is it - and yet through several movies and TV series, book after book, the academy is depicted as a physical location shared by students from diverse planets
Hogwarts is a secure site for training kids with wild talents.
It is common ground.
It lies at the core of the secret society which is Rowling's magical world. In that sense, Hogwarts serves the same purpose as a cathedral, a
The Open University (Score:2, Interesting)
Did you take any courses "for personal interest".. (Score:2)
Did you not take any courses for "personal interest" when you were in college? Here in the US, they're called "electives".
But we're talking about degrees, aren't we? If you're going for a full degree online, most likely you're in it for more than personal interest. However, I know nothing of the quality of OU courses.
Re:Did you take any courses "for personal interest (Score:2)
Did you not take any courses for "personal interest" when you were in college? Here in the US, they're called "electives".
In the UK, these are (usually) not part of your degree. Your degree is in one subject (or sometimes two). There is an implicit assumption that you will acquire a general education on your own while you are at university. I attended lectures on propaganda taught by the politics department for personal interest while I was doing a computer science BSc, for example, but this didn't count toward my degree.
Re:Did you take any courses "for personal interest (Score:3, Informative)
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So, you would imagine a degree from here carries at least some weight in academics and business, but unfortunately that's not the case
No, it has a higher weight than a degree from any of the former polytechnics (at least, with all of the employers I've spoken to - I don't have a degree from either, so I can't comment first-hand).
it is a sad fact that OU degrees are sneered upon in britain today.
Are they? 'OU degrees' covers a broad spectrum. OU degrees in academic subjects tend to be respected; they indicate that the person is sufficiently motivated to learn on their own time, and that they have been assessed as actually having done so. OU degrees in fluffy subjects are subject to the same derision as
My memorable college experience was getting laid (Score:3, Insightful)
"You wouldn't get the sights and sounds of a campus, personal contact with professors, or beer-soaked frat parties, but you'd end up with the knowledge you need and the degree to prove it."
Personal contact with professors. Don't need that. I realize this is supposed to be provocative and snarky but --
He's suggesting a two-class society, in which some of us will be alphas and go on to first-class colleges, while the rest of us will be betas and memorize pages from the Internet.
When you go to college, you're in an educational environment 24/7, getting exposed to more ideas and experiences than most people get otherwise in a lifetime.
Can you imagine spending all your waking hours for 4 years on the Internet hooked up to the University of Phoenix?
To me, the classic moment of college was standing up in a classroom having to defend a position that people disagree with. And then arguing about it later in the cafeteria or dorm. If you've never spent all night arguing over the existence of God, then you never had an education.
Most of the important things I learned at college -- computers, biology, art, music, new sexual positions, fixing cars -- I learned bullshitting with my friends over at my house, or over somebody's dining room table, or just hanging out. And yes we did have a few drinks or a joint. And yes it's nice to have some girls join you in your intellectual explorations. It was also nice to have a library where books were arranged according to the LC call number so whatever you were interested in, you could find a whole shelf on the subject, and read whatever you wanted (even if it was under copyright). And it was nice to go over to the computer lab or physics lab and try to crash the system. And it was nice to run into my professor in the supermarket.
This model of an education is like a factory worker punching in a time clock and sitting on an assembly line for 8 hours. Talk about obsolete models.
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To me, the classic moment of college was standing up in a classroom having to defend a position that people disagree with. And then arguing about it later in the cafeteria or dorm. If you've never spent all night arguing over the existence of God, then you never had an education.
I was doing this sort of thing when I was fifteen -- on the internet, with adults [including, by happenstance, a math professor]. There are entire internet forums devoted to arguing about god. Really, are you thinking about what you're saying? Do you realize where you are? If you want all-night arguments, the internet is going to beat any university...
And yes we did have a few drinks or a joint. And yes it's nice to have some girls join you in your intellectual explorations.
The only reason I ever went to university was to meet girls.
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I just remembered that I actually taught an online journalism course. I recommended a couple of textbooks, gave them assignments which we critiqued, linked to examples of good and bad news stories on the Internet, and gave them a running account of a story that I was working on and explained how I did it. I also invited a couple of students in my region to some journalist's events.
I think I did a pretty good job. It was a lot more interactive than reading a textbook and handing in exercises that only a teac
The Library (Score:4, Insightful)
University is more than a bunch of classes and tests. It's a life experience including: moving away from home and living on your own for the first time, meeting and getting along with people who are more talented than you (a shock if you aren't used to it), establishing friendships and the beginnings of a life-long network, finding out where professors come from, buying some Staedler instruments and spending hours admiring them (partly because you can't afford to do anything else after you paid for them with that month's food money), and discovering the university library.
I can't be the only one who's outlook on life was modified by spending time in a library like the Robarts. There's an atmosphere of concentrated truth in a place like that you just don't find anywhere else. First, you find out that the world is full of people who know a whole lot. Second, you learn that people have spent a lot of time writing down what they know. And the scale of what I'm talking about only really becomes clear when you stand in a library stack with books stretching off forever and ever, each one some person's passionate little gem.
To me, higher learning is about more than just getting some facts straight so you can get a job.
But having said all that, it will be true that other models of learning will bring education to people who otherwise wouldn't get it, and who can argue with that?
Free business plan - but do it right (Score:2)
At one time I thought I'd leave my academic job and actually gather people to do this as a startup, but I'm too risk-averse. Still, the idea is sound and I hope someone steals it.
The idea is this: Release high-quality digital teaching modules under an open license, and pay for top talent to have them made. This teaching software would include video lectures integrated with an interactive "textbook" which is more than a simple reading. The textbook would include manipulable simulation applets to illustrate
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This already exists, to a degree (Score:2)
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[how much I love this pun ...]!
Mod him funny, please!
Something has to change (Score:2)
Since the internet has made the sharing of even expert-level knowledge convenient...
People in college today are paying roughly the same per semester in state school that I was paying to go to a private college a couple decades ago. And, just like the health insurance industry, the costs are rising much faster than the rate of inflation would justify.
Before long, he claimed, the whole bloated, expensive, lecture-based higher education system will face the first challenge to its very existence: open-so
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If you take away tenure you had better be prepared to start offering much higher salaries for professors, because at their current salaries tenure provides the only real incentive to go through the grueling work of undergrad research, grad school, post-doc research/teaching positions, associate/assistant professorial positions, and finally the review process. Remember the daunting levels of competition in academia, the lack of public respect, and the way that pay doesn't go high enough to raise a family at
Sad (Score:2)
backwards (Score:2)
Submitter has it backwards - You'd end up with the degree you want, without the knowledge to prove it. Why do you think University of Phoenix is so popular?
adjuncts (Score:2)
University education has already been made significantly cheaper! The universities are doing it themselves by hiring "adjunct" faculty.
You paid about $5k tuition for each of your freshman semesters, taking calculous, chemistry, english, and history. You had "instructors" for each classes, not professors. Each instructor was paid about $6k for the whole class. TAs are maybe paid slightly more. So the university need only 7 students for each course, the rest is profit.
You can get the same courses for far
Reject the premise (Score:2)
This rather tepid article is likely not worth much attention, but it's good for some Sunday morning philosophizing. The premise is that 1) access to content is either high fidelity or high convenience, and that 2) there is an unfilled niche at the high convenience end of the spectrum. This is coming from a purveyor of high cost "enabling" technology.
The first point is rather blatantly obvious. The second appears to be out of touch with current trends. There already are multiple channels to access higher
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Yes, please! (Score:2)
I so much want this to happen. I left college in 1981 in my sophomore year to work in the field I love, software engineering. I have done many projects that would be worth a PhD if done in the academic context. Much of my career I have worked with PhD credentialed peers. Yet I have no such paper. Beyond the paper, there are things particularly in the more theoretical and research areas that I would like to know much more of. Many of these I do explore with online resources and in books. However I ge
A University Degree is over-rated (Score:2)
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I recently read an article which compared the lifetime earnings of someone who earns an average amount with a high school degree versus someone who earns an average amount with a Bachelors degree.
Yeah, I was really disgusted recently when I saw that working with (good) electricians and plumbers who were younger than me (in their early 30s) and already had two paid houses and worked only 6 months a year while I lived in a crummy rental appt with yeast on the walls and an unstable job in research.
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The current problem is (at least in the US), you have to pay WAY too much to experience all that.
The system is broken and desperately needs to change.
Re:Yes - and? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see what the big deal here is, although I haven't RTFA (of course).
One of the things I learned from college was that if you don't do the reading, you won't know what's going on in class.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the things I learned in college is that if you show up in class, you can pretty much postpone the reading until the exam preparation, and even then you can use your book as a reference rather than reading it pages 1-n.
YMMV.
(one example: the compiler class had the entire Java Language Specification, ~800 pages, as the curriculum. I read ~ten pages, and got the best grade.)
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Is to further the transformation of professors from a collegial model supported by tenure and academic freedom to an underpaid, no-job-security "information transmission technician" temp job to facilitate the extraction of tuition from McStudents.
Is this a question? Scroll further up to 'Kaplan' to know the answer.