

Most College Students To Take Classes Online by 2014 - gbookman
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/10/28/most-college-students-to-take-classes-online-by-2014.aspx

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RK
And almost all of them will have to endure shitty software...

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human_v2
It depends. I don't think a web interface will cut it. Professors will still
need office hours or a chat interface. If this was actually the case, don't
you think students could just as easily sit at home and read the book instead
of going to class? At some point, the lack of teacher-student interaction is
going to cause the quality of education to suffer. I imagine this would be
unacceptable to universities that take their reputations seriously.

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nfnaaron
One of the roles of a good teacher is to be able to look at the face and body
language of a student and think "he's not getting it, I'll try another
approach."

Another is to draw a student out, or egg someone on, like a conductor.

There's also the subtle communication and enthusiasm that races around a small
group of engaged people, that I doubt we'll ever be able to replicate online.

Giant 101 classes taught in auditoriums by RAs are probably good for online
teaching, but I would generally feel that you better be cutting me a break on
my tuition if I never see my professors' eyeballs.

"Oh, you went to the U of Whatever? When? What major? Hey, I think I was your
professor! What'd you think of that blackboard app? Yeah, pretty shitty. So
hey, did you pass my class?"

Not saying we shouldn't, just that we'll lose something valuable if we go all
in.

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adamc
I don't think there is much question that one-on-one tutoring is superior to
small classes which are superior to large classes. I agree that, initially,
large classes will be the target. But in the longer term, it comes down to
economics. Universities keep getting more expensive -- their costs rises
faster than inflation. Much of the cost of a university is the salaries of
faculty and staff. The only real way to keep the cost down is to teach
students in a different, more efficient way. So I wouldn't be surprised if
most students end up being taught in ways that don't allow for things like
assessing body language. I agree that it's better, but it's expensive.

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robotrout
Yes, Universities DO keep getting more expensive. This is troubling in it's
own right, and needs to be looked at.

You don't get to say it's inflation, because it's rising faster than
inflation.

You don't get to say, "we need more money because we need to hire more faculty
and staff to serve all our extra students", because those extra students bring
more money with them in the form of their tuition.

You can try to say, "we have more students, so we need to build more
infrastructure", but I won't let you, because that's why bonds were invented,
and they've been used for centuries for this purpose.

These universities are charging more because they can charge more. It's a
bubble, and it's going to collapse like a bubble, which is a shame.

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PebblesRox
I'm afraid your bubble metaphor is too subtle for me. Educations aren't
tradeable investments like houses and shares, so the value of an education
does not depend on its potential selling price. Can you explain more about how
you think the education bubble will collapse? What do you think will happen to
tuition prices in the future? Will universities go out of business? Will the
collapse benefit students, or will it harm them? How?

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robotrout
I don't know. I can predict doom, without knowing how it will come about.
Nassim Taleb gets away with it, so why not me?

I can only say that these price rises seem artificial, by the reasoning I
already mentioned. Artificially high prices == bubble, since artificially high
(or low) prices are not sustainable.

I fear the collapse will hurt students. If it collapses like a bubble, than it
will bring chaos, which can't be good for anybody, students or universities.
As to how exactly, I can only guess. Perhaps everybody tries to do the online
thing, which, as others have noted, can never be as good as having a flesh and
blood professor. Perhaps it just finally rises to the point that people just
can't afford it, and the colleges go bust due to lack of students. Perhaps
there's a cultural shift away from the notion that college is the most
important thing a person can save 20 years of savings for. I don't know, I
just see prices that don't reflect reality and fear the worst.

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jrockway
Why not just cut out the whole "teaching" thing and mail the student a diploma
based on payment of $70,000 and submission of SAT scores? If you get a 1600,
your diploma will say "MIT". If you get a 1400, it will say "University of
Illinois", etc.

That will save millions of dollars on writing software for online course
administration (and associated support staff). Then the professors can focus
on doing free corporate research instead!

And of course, the student is just as prepared for "the real world", and the
Universities can build up their billion-dollar endowments and live off the
interest. Everybody wins!

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chris123
Where are the best places to see "top lists," such as best online _____
programs (design, CS, etc.)?

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willhf
Good question. People love rankings. What is the most prestigious online
degree ?

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buugs
I took a hybrid course which is online but you meet with a real teacher once a
week and my biggest problem was that we used blackboards software to do
discussions and such and it was a terrible experience.

It made me wish I had just taken a normal course.

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gbookman
When I was a student at the University of Washington I worked at the Business
School's IT department for a couple years.

One of my jobs was to set up Blackboard course websites for instructors. It
was about as much fun as filling out a tax return. Nothing but filling out
forms, selecting options, and other monotonous things like that.

Using it in my classes was about the same experience. We really just used to
it download the syllabus, assignments, and other documents the instructor
posted. No one used the Discussion Board or any of the other Blackboard
features.

