PBS Newshour: Can online courses replace a campus education?

[oldmom4896]

<p>Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that anyone can take from anywhere in the world, are the future of higher education or the vehicle of its demise, depending on your perspective. Hari Sreenivasan talks with the man who first created the MOOC, professors who say they undermine the goals of a college education and others who see a way the college classroom and the new online format can be blended.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/can-online-courses-replace-campus-education/"&gt;http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/can-online-courses-replace-campus-education/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

[Consolation]

<p>Obviously, there is no way an online course can replicate or replace a campus experience.</p>

<p>Which is not to say that they do not have their place.</p>

[zobroward]

<p>ask the HR department.
on line, for profits etc…are not a good idea. </p>

[dyiu13]

<p>Soooo many college students hate and do poorly in online courses. These students prefer in-person courses. </p>

[PurpleTitan]

<p>The future will be a hybrid education, IMO, outside the very top. 4-year go-away experience will be a luxury good. Many will combine commuting/online with maybe 2 years on campus.</p>

[oldmom4896]

<p>This part of the PBS piece was very interesting to me:</p>

<p>

HARI SREENIVASAN: Professor Brian White agrees. White, who has taught biology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston for 15 years, decided last fall to replace his lectures with edX instruction.</p>

<p>BRIAN WHITE: I didn’t give a single lecture on any of this material. All these sort of lectures that were sacred to me that I set up for all these years were not necessary.</p>

<p>HARI SREENIVASAN: Instead, white used edX’s intro to biology class with lectures by MIT Professor Eric Lander, a world-renowned scientist and leader of the Human Genome Project. White says online lectures made it easy for his students to learn the material.</p>

<p>BRIAN WHITE: They really like the ability to stop and rewind and watch at their own pace, to do the equivalent of saying, can you say that again? Can you say that again? Can you say that again? Can you skip over that boring part?</p>

<p>HARI SREENIVASAN: That allowed White to focus his time in class getting students to truly understand the lesson. He added his own materials and spliced edX content to best fit his course.</p>

<p>BRIAN WHITE: I used the MOOCs lectures to show the students what they needed to do to come to class prepared, and then in class, rather than just telling them information, what I was able to do is take them the next step, so show them how to use it, fill in any cracks, deal with students’ individual issues.</p>

<p>To the extent that I can be replaced by a videotape, fine, replace that part of me with a videotape and leave me to do what I do best, which is to work with students.

</p>

[sax]

<p>Nice grab, old mom.</p>

<p>On line courses even the playing field. People without the opportunity,whatever the reason, can learn material and become proficient in it. They can view renowned professors discussing the material just like students sitting in class. Much of this is free right now. It would be also be great if those who wanted to actually attend could test out of intro courses this way.</p>

<p>I think companies will change their hiring practices and do more testing of job applicants rather than relying on a diploma.</p>

<p>Anyway, its really exciting that with a cheap notebook and a wifi connection you can learn anything you want to if you have the determination. </p>

[dyiu13]

<p>I think we’ll see more flipped classroom instruction. </p>