I think I built a Liberal Arts college on the internet | Hacker News Reader

I think I built a Liberal Arts college on the internet

otherlife.co

54 pointsexolymph23 comments

> In the past 2 years, the IndieThinkers.org operation has grossed $189,305

> I'm most proud to say I've paid other lecturers a huge chunk of that. I've paid other lecturers about $63,000, or about $12,000 per lecturer on average. It's a bizarre fact that I pay lecturers substantially more than the average adjunct professor commands from any university in the world.

A yearly salary of $12,000 for an adjunct professor in the U.S. is exceptionally low according to most sources I can find. Perhaps the author forgot to mention that the lecturers are part-time, or something of that nature?

The WORLD hello.

For example here in Vietnam a university lecturer can earn between $500-$1500 a month, but the average is about $1000.

The universities are pretty good -- I've taught a few semesters in the system.

http://www.salaryexplorer.com/salary-survey.php?loc=236&loct...

> substantially more than the average adjunct professor commands from any university in the world.

suggests (although I agree it's ambiguous) that they pay more than any university pays on average to adjunct professors (e.g. more than the average Harvard adjunct professor earns).

Again I understood the reference to be the "world" / "global". So entirely NOT ambiguous. I don't understand why you are mentioning "Harvard". It's simply in America. The world -- surprisingly -- is much bigger than this.

"Any" implies the entire world, including the top universities. So more than any university is also more than all universities.

"Average" is the key word in that sentence though.

I read it as a per course payment. Adjuncts earn more but teach multiple courses. Open to correction.

It's a course structure, not a semester, so it's for a particular workshop.

I've been following the work at Signum University, which has also built up an online liberal arts college:

https://signumuniversity.org/

I think highly of their program. It's a very interactive program, focusing on literature and the humanities. It's more than just lectures and tests. It's much more about online discussion and written essays, and aims for the ideal of a college teaching you "how to learn to think".

I much prefer it to the more common MOOC idea, which treats college as if it were a vocational school.

Signum just earned the ability to grant Masters of Arts degrees. Long term they want an undergraduate program. It's far, far cheaper than any brick-and-mortar school, and the students learn things that I find incredibly important.

I bring it up because their experience follows a similar path to yours. You might talk to them for advice. It's not a big corporation; it's literally the brainchild of one English professor who wants to change education. I expect they'd be very helpful to share what they've learned.

The author of the blog post has an "interesting" past:

https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/12/lecturer-suspended-after-comp...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6278739/Southampton...

https://www.wessexscene.co.uk/opinion/2019/09/09/i-wish-this...

https://www.wessexscene.co.uk/opinion/2019/09/12/i-wish-this...

Their publication record isn't especially strong either: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1dhhMPkAAAAJ&hl=en...

I'm not sure I'd want to attend a "Liberal Arts College" by a self-confessed thief who resigned after being suspended as a lecturer.

> I'm not sure I'd want to attend a "Liberal Arts College" by a self-confessed thief

I don't know. I appreciate honesty. Give me an honest thief over a self-censuring conformist. I'm not making judgments about the post author, but about being a self-confessed thief.

And that's how you end up with kleptocrats

I think you'd find it hard to find an honest kleptocrat.

I'm starting to believe this is performance art in the tradition of Joaquin Phoenix's transformation into rap musician. At least some of his provocative "not provocative" (his words) Tweets are political satire. This is not a comment on quality or appropriateness.

This is the classic headline of "Guy compared <good thing> to <bad thing>" but when you look closer, what they did is employ a metaphor (or Devil's advocate).

I'm trying to imagine the life of a student whose thesis advisor is a guy that makes Youtube videos titled "The Ethics of Shoplifting feat. Xenogothic".

You can disagree with what he says, but I think he makes a fair point. From the first article,

> ‘Academia doesn’t need more polite bureaucrats. Academia needs smart people who are weird enough to be real and tell the truth, about the little things as much as the big things.’

> In a blog, Dr Murphy, who brands himself a ‘highly skilled’ intellectual, said: ‘What I am doing is simple. I am just thinking and saying whatever I feel like.’

> He added: ‘I want to enjoy the right to make mistakes, to be rude, to occasionally overshoot and occasionally undershoot, perhaps even wildly.’

> He also said: ‘If my bosses think that any of this is inconsistent with my employment, then I will just infer that their employment is inconsistent with a real intellectual life.

Yes, there is a difference between honest, intelligent thought and absurdist nonsense that offends people, but the line separating the two can be incredibly narrow, or sometimes nonexistant.

There is, and has always been room in society for those who say things that irritate or inflame other people, even at the cost of society belittling or dismissing them (or in modern times, cancelling them).

He mentions another project, https://arrangedmarriages.co/

>We arrange marriages for millennials and zoomers tired of endless dating.

>It's free to apply (takes about 4 minutes). We only ask for payment when we find you a spouse.

Any takers?

Are you asking me to marry you?

That website: “Please provide a complete profile about you and your personality, and we will make all your dreams come true. Don’t worry, we totally won’t sell or leak this data!”

Reinventing the wheel but imperfectly. He basically made a premium learning pod for adult learners at best.

How does it compare with Arizona State? Pretty similar?

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