Camera for taking online exams
By Paul Rogers, George Mason University
The move towards free online courses continues at a rapid pace. Almost weekly we learn of a new online educational platform, the creation of new distance education partnerships, or the sinking of millions of dollars of venture capital into these educational startups. I’ve personally benefited from these resources, especially from MIT’s Open Courseware; I have had enjoyed rich learning experiences in courses I’ve taken through Stanford’s Center for Professional Development. Below is a list of just a few of the heavy hitters in this emerging space.
Ted Ed
Coursera
Khan Academy
MIT Open Courseware
ITunes U
Udemy
EdX
Like other knowledge-delivery businesses, such as newspaper and magazine publishing and bookstores, the business model of the university is under severe stress especially with the continued decreases in public funding. But for the masses of young people in K-12 educational systems around the world, the opportunity to take part in the experience of college will continue to be a family-held goal, one that carries a great deal of value and provides real justification for the sacrifices, high cost, and the incursion of student loan debt.
Sites like the ones above, the University of Phoenix, and the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) represent real disruption in higher education, as well as an evolution in creating access to a variety of knowledge bases and content. However, before we declare the university as we know it today “sick unto death”, jump on the bandwagon of online education, or claim that higher education is the next bubble to burst, I would argue that we need real data to separate the hype from the real changes taking place.
For example, here’s a bit of recent data regarding the rise in student loan debt held by the U.S. Government. http://mercatus.org/publication/student-loans-held-federal-government One could easily imagine the tightening of student loan policies (given that the student loan interest rate bill is before Congress right now) leading to substantial drop in college enrollments. Then, the Universities begin competing on price (which is beginning to happen) and colleges begin to shut down like newspapers. Will badges and certificates that represent the acquisition of new knowledge take hold in the private sector when young people (or non-traditional graduates) apply for jobs? Will portfolios of work count as much as a degree?
For public universities, the rise of high quality, online, and free educational resources actually highlights the real value of the in-person college experience, which is primarily one of access to and feedback from experts and mentors. Years of research has shown that quality and quantity of interactions with faculty are among the most engaging elements of the college experience, and are at the heart of transformational learning. Additionally, the rise of these online knowledge portals like MIT’s Open Courseware ups the value of faculty members who accelerate the development of their students. Plus, access to high-quality content changes the role of faculty members as faculty must become curators of knowledge who find ways to integrate some of the world’s top quality content into their courses to make sure they are fulfilling their obligations to their students. They must learn to serve as guides from the side rather than sages on the stage.
While you can get truly world class material via these online knowledge portals, you can’t get personalized, ongoing, feedback. You can only get that kind of interaction in the brick and mortar colleges that will be with us for a long time to come.
Hey Paul! Great post on a topic which is buzzing around these days in the educational world. You are right to point out that we need to wait and see what data presents itself on this particular topic as it is very new. I particularly liked the “guides from the side” versus “sages from the stage” point.
What I want to push back on is what you ended with though, this assertion that you can’t get personalized, ongoing feedback from these online portals and that is why physical universities will continue to persist. While I agree, in general, that the feedback offered from the online education system is much less robust than at a physical university, I do not believe that this is the saving grace of physical universities. In fact, if this is to be their saving grace than, based upon my personal experiences, professors need to do a LOT of improvement to step into a role of a mentor rather than just a lecturer.
The other thing I would point out is that the above assertion assumes, to some degree, that we can only receive that kind of feedback at a university. Likely you are saying feedback directly related to a course, but I think even then we are seeing the emergence of student collaborative feedback. I think there is a real opportunity here for students to embrace a lack of a physical instructor and rely upon each other for this type of feedback you are describing.
With that said, I think we can both agree that this new field is truly a learning opportunity for traditional higher education institutions. The hope is that traditional education will be made better in light of this, and that online education will be made better through the process as well.
Thanks Ryan for the thoughtful feedback. I’m still thinking this online education bit through and you’ve definitely helped me push my thinking further. I have a couple of thoughts I would add regarding feedback. You’re absolutely right about feedback. In my own research in fact on the Stanford Study of Writing I found that the most powerful influence on writing development was feedback from peers outside of class.
That said, my thought about the value of access to university experts comes from my experience with MIT Open Courseware. Every course at MIT gets put online, notes, quizzes, reading lists, sometimes videos and other course materials. But, that’s not the same as going to MIT. When you’re at MIT you get access to the networks, resources, the feedback from peers and professors, but perhaps even more importantly the credibility that a degree from MIT holds in the world. So, this is where you’ve pushed me forward. Thinking through the role of certification in the online world.
I look forward to more conversations!
Paul