<p>[Professor’s</a> logic class has 180,000 friends](<a href=“http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0113/logic_class.php3#.UQZ7yG_Acr8]Professor’s”>http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0113/logic_class.php3#.UQZ7yG_Acr8)</p>
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<p>The Friedman article is worth reading.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/friedman-revolution-hits-the-universities.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/friedman-revolution-hits-the-universities.html</a></p>
<p>I agree with you comp mom - minimizing wasted time in classes, especially during discussions that yield little, would make some classes far easier to succeed at, especially for the gifted person who ‘gets it’ right away, and the ADHD person whose mind wanders during useless times.</p>
<p>Online courses could also help to keep older workers current. And they could help to educate individuals who are not well rounded and who can not do all of the coursework necessary to complete a degree, yet who can complete specific courses.</p>
<p>Imo, people spend too much time on the computer and not enough time interacting in real life with others, already. The thought of online courses replacing learning in a classroom with others is a very depressing thought to me.</p>
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<p>Actually, the idea of self-paced courses is quite old, but not necessarily in the context of on-line courses. I remember there being self-paced courses in freshman calculus, computer science, and a few other courses. Students would self-study, but have access to a tutoring center, and be able to schedule exams to verify progress in each portion of the course. There was nothing on-line (except for computer science courses, of course).</p>
<p>The typical benefit was that the best students could work through the course quickly, without waiting for the average students that the normal course was paced for. Meanwhile, the weakest students could take more time (e.g. completing a semester of freshman calculus over two semesters). Students who come in with partial knowledge of the course can also use the self-paced courses to cover the gaps, or do a quick review of parts they mostly know while taking the new material at a slower pace.</p>
<p>But the typical drawback is that students tend to procrastinate (particularly new freshmen who are still learning college time management skills), which may be why the self-paced offerings are fewer than they used to be. The concept may work best in the context of the most motivated students, or those who just need to fill in a few gaps, while being less effective for the average student that the course is aimed for.</p>
<p>[EDITORIAL
The Trouble With Online College
New York Times
February 18, 2013](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/opinion/the-trouble-with-online-college.html”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/opinion/the-trouble-with-online-college.html</a>)
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<p>I think that by age 18 students should not need much hand-holding.</p>
<p>[Two Cheers for Web U!
by A. J. JACOBS
New York Times
April 20, 2013](<a href=“Opinion | Grading the MOOC University - The New York Times”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/grading-the-mooc-university.html</a>)
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<p>The author gives the overall experience a B. Professors do need to paid for their time. Maybe MOOCs will have premium options where one pays to have access to virtual office hours of a professor. MOOCs are like books, and acquiring a book does not entitle one to the personal attention of the author.</p>
<p>Worry that in the future online colleges will be used primarily for lower income students and in person for full pay and the truly exceptional.</p>
<p>I could see a sort of combination system working. Perhaps students could take required courses that are not in their major field of study online. Leaving the “in class” attendance for the courses in their major field of study.</p>
<p>My sense from reading this thread is that MOOCs won’t replace the residential college entirely, but, could be used to supplement course work in a variety of ways. One that comes immediately to mind is shortening the time necessary to graduate, thus cutting costs significantly. Middle-class families, in particular, would find the notion of 25% - or, more - shaved off their elite private college’s total bill very attractive.</p>
<p>Colleges could “pay in” to a national MOOC exchange, by providing access to the best of their own professors and thereby entitling their students to “take out” a limited number of courses over the space of their time on campus. A course taught by a world-reknowned Harvard professor ought to have at least as much credibility as an AP course taught by a high school teacher - even if given on the internet.</p>
<p>Of course, you have to have some skin in the game to take advantage of it:</p>
<p>[Ed-Tech</a> at EMU ? Bravo to Amherst faculty!](<a href=“http://emu.edu/now/ed-tech/2013/04/19/bravo-to-amherst-faculty/]Ed-Tech”>http://emu.edu/now/ed-tech/2013/04/19/bravo-to-amherst-faculty/)</p>
<p>The ferocity in the attacks by the “teachers’ establishment” is probably the best proof that the further development of MOOCs is a good idea. Inasmuch as the best MOOCs still leave much to be desired, their direct competition is none other than the atrocious courses that masquerade as higher education (yes those typically built on the "distant diva cum TAs or GSI model.) </p>
<p>It is an issue of lesser evil.</p>
<p>I teach two on-line sociology courses at a brick and mortar state university. Online courses are NOT for those with ESL issues, those who need a lot of direction, those with remedial reading issues, those who don’t like to check email and other on-line announcements regularly, those who struggle with independent reading, and those who write in texting language because they are writing online. Yet I get all of the above in my courses.</p>
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<p>Such people should not be in “higher education” to begin with.</p>
<p>Raise your hand everyone who would like to be operated on by a surgeon with a newly minted online medical degree? No? Then I guess brick and mortar colleges are here to stay.</p>
<p>PS: I fervently hope there are no online medical degrees.</p>
<p>Whatever is more effective to aid learning is the way to go. In some areas, online courses are more effective, while in others, human interaction may be more effective. </p>
<p>I think the future is a mix of both. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>^^^^Can you give me an area of study in which online teaching would be of superior quality to teaching the same course in person? Online is often more convenient but I really cant see a situation in which it would be superior in terms of quality to in person teaching.</p>
<p>Depends on the prof, honestly.</p>
<p>And the student.</p>
<p>My oldest, who loves classes, would despise online school. My youngest? I don’t know.</p>
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<p>Yet they are, in vast numbers. I would argue that these are the typical students, and it’s the atypical students who are actually prepared in the traditional sense to do self-directed higher-level work. </p>
<p>MOOCs are supposed to open up worlds of opportunity for students who lack the time or money for brick-and-mortar schools, and perhaps they will. However, they are not going to be of much use to the average young student, who will lack the follow-through and self-discipline to turn off other distractions and engage with the course without much, if any, communal support or physical structure. Scholarly introverted types who like to work alone and who get deeply involved in self-designed projects will find MOOCs well-suited to their personalities. But most people are sociable creatures who need interactions and concrete rewards. That’s why most of us still schlep to an office even though a lot of us could do much of our work at home online.</p>
<p>My D’s ex-BF (fortunately) earned his Harvard degree almost completely on-line from the west coast. He was required to do a minimal number of units-1 semester- on campus at the beginning and then went back again toward the end for a couple of mini courses. His diploma is no different than that of someone who attended on-campus full time. He is very bright, but his family is very dysfunctional and he is quite socially awkward. He desperately needed to go somewhere else-anywhere–away for college and to have a lot of group interaction with others on a daily basis. Money was not an issue. I had no idea this could be done and feel as if he cheated himself.</p>
<p>No, just like the printing press, the postal service, and television didn’t.</p>