<p>I wonder how quickly and to what extent online courses will replace residential colleges and K-12 schools. I think the potential is especially high for math and computer science. The natural sciences and engineering require laboratories, and in the humanities, class discussion and comments from a teacher or professor on written work are important. The breakthrough for online education will come when/if big-name employers decide that degrees earned online are credible.</p>
<p>So far my kids have used EPGY and Art of Problem Solving (AOPS). AOPS courses have weekly online classes lead by instructors where students can answer questions in real time.</p>
<p>Two recent articles on online education are</p>
<p>I think that things are shaking out re: online education.
At both my and my daughters schools, some classes for some courses are only available online.</p>
<p>Her chem lab for example is online, which seems awful to me, I really need the physical interaction to learn.</p>
<p>Online education may be fine for some students, and may be a solution for those students who are interested in less popular or esoteric courses which are offered infrequently on campus.
It also is a wise idea to conserve fuel ( for commuters), and instead of one non- tenured prof traveling to 2 or 3 different schools, they can teach from wherever they have an Internet connection!</p>
<p>However, do we want the bulk of profs to be disconnected to the schools through which the students enrolled or do we think there is a benefit to having profs physically on campus?</p>
<p>I imagine that hybrid teaching will become the norm, with an online component and a classroom component; however, college is also a kind of intellectual and social finishing school, and extensive human interaction is essential for that enterprise. I don’t see online education seriously displacing or replacing bricks and mortar, at least not for 18-22 year olds.</p>
<p>Will it be increasingly possible to get a piece of paper strictly through online study? I think the answer is, clearly, “yes.” And if the piece of paper is all you’re going to college for, then by all means, get it through the cheapest, fastest, least painful method possible.</p>
<p>But those students who genuinely care about the quality of the education they attain through their college experience would do well to consider the evidence:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>When online courses can replicate those qualities, then yes, they may become a viable alternative. Until that time, anyone who desires an excellent education is much better served by seeking out a bricks-and-mortar institution where those things are prevalent.</p>
<p>Online misses the collaboration. Even in my CS experiences, that was crucial.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to realize the current push for online availability is at least partly motivated by profit. Many online classes today are free, but it’s acknowledged this is a window, to draw attention. Existing “extension” or community learning programs U’s offer are seen as “profit centers” versus the “cost centers” of classroom teaching. I agree many electives can be handled as digital classrooms or lectures online- those same sorts of extras, eg, that we watch PBS or CSPAN for.</p>
<p>Online chem lab is a really bad idea. It reminds me of the lines from Alien:
How many drops is this for you, Lieutenant?
Thirty-eight . . . simulated.
How many combat drops?
Uh . . . two, including this one.</p>
<p>The lab is not needed so much to learn the chemical concepts as to learn to work safely with the chemicals and equipment. There are a lot of hazards in a real chemistry lab.</p>
<p>I used to watch surgeries on, I think, Lifetime, when it was new. One early idea behind them was that watching counted as ongoing learning credit for health professionals. Yikes. You don’t want to know what surgeries these were.</p>
<p>I think it’s good for pre-meds who have completed organic chemistry, math, physics, and the introductory biology courses reasonably well to perform actual dissections in the more advanced labs. But you could save a lot of frogs by having only simulated dissections in intro bio.</p>
<p>I’m reminded of how technology is being used for meetings and education for organizations like IBM, and the US Military.</p>
<p>Everyone has an avatar and they interact with each other via SecondLife.
( I really wanna know if their avatars are accurate or if I could be WonderWoman)
It sounds pretty wild to me but then I’ve never used it.</p>
<p>While human interaction is desirable in many contexts, remember that the “college experience” is not necessarily that of a four year residential college that appears to be what people on these forums think is the norm. Indeed, commuting to community college or the local university may be the actual norm, where college-related human interaction is limited to class time, and the students then go back to home or work (where they may have other kinds of human interaction) as soon as class is over.</p>
<p>If online education serves the goals and needs of students attending community colleges and commuter schools, then it will grow in those areas; but I don’t see it replacing attendance at, say, Stanford or MIT. Online education has already affected the delivery of material, even at residential institutions; but claims that it will replace conventional institutions entirely are overblown. For people who attend college for reasons other than to attain credentials for jobs, online degrees will continue to have limited appeal. People attend college for all kinds of reasons, including social development, intellectual stimulation, the pleasure of being around like-minded people, and social signaling. I don’t see online universities fulfilling those needs as well as concrete communities.</p>
<p>I don’t see it replacing most schools. I would like to see more online options though at residential schools. I took one class online freshman year, one freshman summer, 3 sophomore summer, 3 junior year, 2 junior summer, and now 3 senior year. This has been great because it allows me to work a ~40 hour work week and still be a full time student. For working students like myself, a hybrid schooling experience makes my life so much easier. I am currently looking at hybrid grad options. </p>
<p>With that said, I wouldn’t have enjoyed an entirely online experience. I liked living in the dorms and getting to interact with professors and students face to face. But for large lecture classes, like physics and intro to public health, the online model works perfectly fine. It even highly enhanced my population dynamics class because we worked off of population websites and software for our “lectures”. Got much more out of those than we ever could out of just a typical book and lecture.</p>
<p>I have taken a couple of online courses. One had multiple choice exams and one paper. It was interesting, but not rigorous.</p>
<p>The other online class was one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. The amount of writing required was far more than on campus, and noone could hide in a corner and avoid contributing. The professor used media, attached documents and images, and many other resources that livened things up. We wrote several papers, had great discussions, and did field work.</p>
<p>Kids in K-12 are doing more and more online work IN the classroom via Smartboards, laptops, IPads and so on. Organizations like Coursera are now offering free online classes (no credit, but possible certificate) from prestigious universities.</p>
<p>So I think there are big changes ahead for all levels of education.</p>
<p>However, there is some danger of a sort of class polarization in which the “have nots” do more online than the “haves.” Employer attitudes to degrees may reflect this as well, perhaps un justly.</p>
<p>On-line learning already has replaced college for hundreds of thousands of students. It never will for all, however. There is too much to be gained by a residential college experience. Those with means or access to FA will always have that option. But a growing number of middle-class students in state universities are being funnelled into more and more on-line classes.</p>
