Most College Students To Take Classes Online by 2014
campustechnology.com
campustechnology.com
Another is to draw a student out, or egg someone on, like a conductor.
There's also the subtle communication and enthusiasm that races around a small group of engaged people, that I doubt we'll ever be able to replicate online.
Giant 101 classes taught in auditoriums by RAs are probably good for online teaching, but I would generally feel that you better be cutting me a break on my tuition if I never see my professors' eyeballs.
"Oh, you went to the U of Whatever? When? What major? Hey, I think I was your professor! What'd you think of that blackboard app? Yeah, pretty shitty. So hey, did you pass my class?"
Not saying we shouldn't, just that we'll lose something valuable if we go all in.
You don't get to say it's inflation, because it's rising faster than inflation.
You don't get to say, "we need more money because we need to hire more faculty and staff to serve all our extra students", because those extra students bring more money with them in the form of their tuition.
You can try to say, "we have more students, so we need to build more infrastructure", but I won't let you, because that's why bonds were invented, and they've been used for centuries for this purpose.
These universities are charging more because they can charge more. It's a bubble, and it's going to collapse like a bubble, which is a shame.
I can only say that these price rises seem artificial, by the reasoning I already mentioned. Artificially high prices == bubble, since artificially high (or low) prices are not sustainable.
I fear the collapse will hurt students. If it collapses like a bubble, than it will bring chaos, which can't be good for anybody, students or universities. As to how exactly, I can only guess. Perhaps everybody tries to do the online thing, which, as others have noted, can never be as good as having a flesh and blood professor. Perhaps it just finally rises to the point that people just can't afford it, and the colleges go bust due to lack of students. Perhaps there's a cultural shift away from the notion that college is the most important thing a person can save 20 years of savings for. I don't know, I just see prices that don't reflect reality and fear the worst.
They can pay less (and in some cases are), but it is hard to attract strong academic talent that way. Getting a PhD takes a long time, and in the sciences there are likely to be a bunch more years working as a postdoc for not much. I'm not sure how much more blood they can squeeze out of that stone.
So, I agree that something needs to change, but I think it will require innovation to raise teaching productivity.
That will save millions of dollars on writing software for online course administration (and associated support staff). Then the professors can focus on doing free corporate research instead!
And of course, the student is just as prepared for "the real world", and the Universities can build up their billion-dollar endowments and live off the interest. Everybody wins!
It made me wish I had just taken a normal course.
One of my jobs was to set up Blackboard course websites for instructors. It was about as much fun as filling out a tax return. Nothing but filling out forms, selecting options, and other monotonous things like that.
Using it in my classes was about the same experience. We really just used to it download the syllabus, assignments, and other documents the instructor posted. No one used the Discussion Board or any of the other Blackboard features.