<p>"Legislation will be introduced in the California Senate on Wednesday that could reshape higher education by requiring the state’s public colleges and universities to give credit for faculty-approved online courses taken by students unable to register for oversubscribed classes on campus. "</p>
<p>What is incredible is the President of the University of California Mark Yudof, is onboard with allowing MOOC's to be taken for credit in Calif. </p>
<p>"I’m flat-out optimistic about it, as long as our faculty has the chance to massage it appropriately,” he said. “They might want to add recitation, or assessment or discussions groups, but assuming they accept it, I think it’s fine."</p>
<p>Wow!
Based on the speed that online courses are being created, accepted, used, and now accredited- I predict that for most Calif students- a college education will look very different, and cost a lot less 10 years from now. </p>
<p>Revival of the formerly more common self-paced courses?</p>
<p>Given that the course impaction is mainly a problem at the open admission community colleges (as opposed to UCs and CSUs which can limit enrollment by the admissions process), it would not be too difficult, in theory, for community colleges to certify equivalency by giving the on-line student a final exam. Then the UCs and CSUs would accept it based on the articulation listings on [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) .</p>
<p>In practice, courses which require evaluation based on projects, labs, term papers, etc. might not be as easily certifiable by a final exam.</p>
<p>For lab courses they could do what many 4-year schools do. The lecture portion could be taken online, maybe even the recitation. The lab and exams could be required to be on campus. There still might be issues with space in the labs, but they could require the first 2 parts be completed before enrolling in the lab, weeding out some students who won’t pass.</p>
<p>There are other perspectives. This is from lawyersgunsmoneyblog (can’t post the link) - posting without comment, I am not a California resident although my child attends college there.</p>
<p>"The education capitalists have a great plan. We starve the universities by reducing their state funding so much that students can’t easily graduate in 4 years. Then we get our lackeys in the state legislature to pass a law forcing schools to accept online classes as credit. That opens up the possibility for gigantic MOOCs [massive open online courses] that has two benefits. First, we can cut state education funding even more. Second, we can make a ridiculous amount of money through the continued privatization of education. We then get our useful idiot Thomas Friedman to pretend that his friends at Harvard are great teachers and thus deserve to teach these MOOCs. Then we can lay off all the professors, although we’ll still have to find a way to continue hiring university VPs at six figure salaries. </p>
<p>I mean, there won’t actually be jobs for any university graduates. And they won’t have actually learned anything. But what do we care? We just made $50,000 in the last 4 years off each student!"</p>
<p>“Overall, the online format had a significantly negative relationship with both course persistence and course grade, indicating that the typical student had difficulty adapting to online courses. While this negative sign remained consistent across all subgroups, the size of the negative coefficient varied significantly across subgroups. Specifically, we found that males, Black students, and students with lower levels of academic preparation experienced significantly stronger negative coefficients for online learning compared with their counterparts, in terms of both course persistence and course grade.”</p>
<p>My fear is that this is a net negative for California students, as it gives the legislature yet another excuse to cut education funding.</p>
<p>As a community college teacher that offers on- line courses I can confidently state that there are many problems associated with on-line courses. Lack of feedback, lack of modeling, and fewer controls about who is actually doing the work to name three.</p>
<p>The on-line model resembles the old self-paced model that was more common a few decades ago in introductory math and computer science courses.</p>
<p>The idea was that students could study the course material at their own pace, with access to a tutoring center for the course (the on-line model merely adds additional resources like lecture videos). It was likely advantageous to the following types of students:</p>
<ul>
<li>Students who come in with partial knowledge of the course, and do not want to spend time repeating the parts that they already knew.</li>
<li>Strong and motivated students in the subject who would finish the entire course early in the semester, leaving them more time for other courses late in the semester (or continuing on to the next course in sequence, if that course is also available as a self-paced course).</li>
<li>Motivated but less well prepared students who could take two semesters to complete a one semester course.</li>
</ul>
<p>But these students were likely a small minority of students, and the typical student would likely slack off and procrastinate and try to cram the entire course in the last few weeks, or not complete the entire course as initially planned when they need it as a prerequisite for the next semester.</p>
<p>It is likely that the on-line model would benefit select groups of students like the old self-paced model did. But if it is just used as overflow when regular courses are full, then the students taking the on-line versions would not necessarily be selected as those most likely to benefit from that model, compared to those for whom it would be a detriment.</p>
<p>So we shouldn’t expect college students to regulate themselves and put in the effort to stay on top of their own progress? I’m afraid that if we cater to such low expectations of autonomy, we will fall further behind internationally in the quality of the educated class we produce.</p>
<p>The fact that motivation is the biggest factor in one’s success in an online course is another reason it is a great equalizer. After all, can’t we agree that the best students and future employees are the ones that are motivated, auto-didactic, and disciplined–and are not always the ones that can afford to go to a fancy college. Money and other social factors will play less of a role in who succeeds in college once all students are given similar opportunities from primary school on up with quality online instruction. Done right, the opportunity to foster a love of learning and self-discipline from a young age will shift the educational paradigm to one in which teachers become facilitators and mentors rather than the primary source of instruction. I believe a more meritocratic system will result. </p>
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</p>
<p>These are all problems that can be overcome when attention and resources are put into the design and implementation of the courses. Right now, there is certainly a range of quality, as attested to on this forum by people who have had both excellent and awful experiences with online learning.</p>
<p>I disagree 110%. Where do you think that self-discipline and motivation comes from? While some may be internal, much is created by home environments and the expectations that they transmit. At least with an instructor in the room there is a chance for intervention by a human being. Instructors help kids identify their skills and offer encouragement. They step in and tell kids that they are not limited to the path that has been trod by other members of their family. Your way will work for some, but it will leave vast segments of the population uneducated and unskilled.</p>
<p>Whether we should or should not have such expectations, it has historically been the case that students in high school and university (undergraduate) have typically needed more structured course work than self-study or self-paced courses provide (and that appears to be true internationally – are there any countries where the self-paced model has been successful for the general student population?).</p>
<p>Obviously, the most motivated students can self-study and do well in a self-paced course (and some of them go on to PhD study, where the PhD thesis is the end result of self-study of some original research area). But to say that this is a reasonable expectation for most high school and university students seems unrealistic, whether in the US or internationally.</p>
<p>This does not mean that a hybrid model cannot be successful, though. There have been some apparently successful experiments where students in a classroom work through on-line lessons at their own pace (but with implicit or explicit expectations of a minimum level of progress), with live teachers in the classroom available whenever the students have questions on what they are working on.</p>
<p>I’m not saying there is not a future role for teachers–but it will be very different. They will be able to give more one on one encouragement and individualized attention when most of the “instruction” is done by those with the best communication skills to explain concepts. All kinds of interactive techniques can enhance a child’s motivation (think educational games) each applied appropriately according to age and level. Access to good instruction will be less dependent on where you live and how much money you have. Although, I certainly agree that family culture and environment play a big role in motivation, this quality is highly influenced by agency–even a child must feel that he has power over his own learning, something more easily attainable with individual online pacing. There will still be an important role for schools (or learning centers) to engage kids in all kinds of group activities.</p>
<p>But I certainly think that by the time a person hits college, they should be fully capable of taking their learning into their own hands and be responsible for meeting deadlines, studying what is necessary and actively developing their own intellect while having access to discussion and debate, and general support that should come with any good online course. I will point out that universities in the most of the rest of the world, for example Britain, expect much more autonomy and self-pacing from their students. And as much as I like the U.S. college system for my privileged children, I don’t believe its outcomes are necessarily better.</p>
<p>I referred to this in the cross post with you, but I will say again, I’m a European resident and familiar with the system here and for better or worse, students are expected to read and study the material on their own and show up for exams prepared to demonstrate their knowledge. I do get the sense that the typical college-educated adult here is more auto-didactic, in that they seem to be more willing to pick up books and learn new things on their own. That is my anecdotal impression.</p>
<p>In US universities, this is not that unusual in more advanced courses (introductory courses usually do have more frequent assignments, although some have no assignments except for exams and perhaps a term project). It is the fixed exam dates that provide the external motivation for the student to avoid falling behind in class. It is not really like the self-paced model.</p>
<p>Well, maybe the expectations for that kind of autonomy just start earlier here. Even in high school in my host country, kids mostly only have high-stakes exams three times a year (including make up exams in September). It is much more frequent to hold a kid back a grade (or several) here if they don’t pass a certain number of exams. I do think this model has been changing toward a more American-style high school philosophy, but the “old school” does have the effect of making kids much more responsible for their own educational outcome.</p>
<p>I hope that you are correct, but I fear that this is not what is likely to transpire. The educational model you envision is not cheaper than the traditional model. So long as this change is driven by the desire to cut costs, public education is likely to suffer. I do not doubt that the most competitive private institutions will be able to provide a superior educational experience using this model; I expect that they will do so and be able to continue to command a high price for their product. It is at the CSU and CC level where I expect this to have the most dire impacts.</p>