<p>I just listened to a very interesting NPR On Point interview with a Columbia professor who speaks of the ongoing decline in higher education and warns of unsustainability of the current system for a variety of reasons:</p>
<p>I haven’t read the book yet, but he seems to suggest that part of the solution would be to develop higher education networks and greater integration, combining online learning, with some brick and mortar and more fluid global exchange of information.</p>
<p>^ Yep I totally agree plus in online classes you can rewind the lecture.
I can also attest to learning more through the Khan Academy in one summer of youtube videos than my previous three years in high school math.</p>
<p>So how many posters here have kids looking at the cheapest option? </p>
<p>How many are considering sending their kids to a community college? That’s a lower cost option. </p>
<p>In truth, there are many strata in higher ed, mostly based on student body quality, not price. For some, e.g. those whose entering credentials qualify them for the lower strata of higher ed, perhaps the lowest cost option would serve them equally well as a more expensive choice. But for many, getting a degree is about credentialing far more than about specific learning.</p>
<p>MBA faculty have debated this endlessly. They ask “Why do employers pay a premium to hire grads of elite MBA programs?” (and they ask the same question regarding elite undergrad programs, too.) Most research suggests that employers are hiring the kids that were good enough to get into those elite programs. Some researchers even suggest that HR and hiring managers have essentially outsourced a good part of the employee screening process to the admissions committees for these programs.</p>
<p>Seems to me that until the employment world changes its practices (or at least the job seeker’s perception of its practices!), there will be no pressure on higher ed to change its practices.</p>
<p>Most lectures are the equivalent of sitting in the back of a movie theater, having the screen chopped by 90%, with a poor sound system, and distractions that would never be allowed in a real movie theater. Lectures are a cheap, ineffective way for a professor to articulate exactly how their opinion differs from the the text used in class. The are the equivalent of an overpacked street bus … sure it gets 80 people to the next stop, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>IF the lecture component of a class could be packaged into an online format, and then supplemented by 15-25 person discussion groups, then the large university might be able to approximate what is delivered by an LAC, only better. The current problem is that the University is spending too much delivering the ineffective lecture, so that he discussion groups don’t get the budget they deserve. If the budget were 80% discussion group, 20% lecture, instead of the reverse, we might have better outcomes of students who can think (and experess themselves) more articulately.</p>
<p>I speak from the perspective of econ and linguistics. Perhaps the sciences/math better divide resource between lecture and lab.</p>
<p>*The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that it is considering charging for access to online lectures and class notes, which are currently available free on the Web.</p>
<p>Speaking at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developments Institutional Management in Higher Education conference in Paris this month, Lori Breslow, director of M.I.T.s Teaching and Learning Laboratory, said that free access may not be the best economic model, so we are now looking seriously at new e-learning opportunities.</p>
<p>Long a leader in the Open Course Ware movement, which provides free and open access to high-quality educational materials, M.I.T. has come under increasing financial pressure because of the fall in the value of its endowment.</p>
<p>From a high of $10.1 billion in 2008, M.I.T.s endowment has shrunk to $7.6 billion. According to University World News, an online newsletter, putting courses behind a paywall is one of a number of measures designed to deliver $150 million in cuts over the 2009-12 period. *</p>
<p>What abou the fact that with an online lecture, if you fall asleep during it, you can simply go back and listen again, but if you fall asleep in class you have to scramble for someone else’s notes or (worst case scenario) get kicked out of the class!</p>
<p>Plus, discussions can be held online, easily. In fact, some people might be more willing to speak up online in a forum setting because they might be less intimidated to speak up. Arn’t we having a productuve discussion now?</p>
<p>I’ve led interactive webinars. The technology is currently not that great, so it isn’t nearly as engaging as leading a seminar in person, but it works.</p>