Dont download degrees? March 21
My local University paper, The Daily Tar Heel ran an article a few days ago flaming the concept of online education like a pittsburged steak.
The editorial board claims that it would devalue the prestige of the University. A letter to the editor by a student advocates that a true education cannot come from a computer program. In fact this student claims: The purpose of the University is to create a tangible environment where people can personally interact together through discussion, collaboration and action. True education cannot come from a computer program and virtual interaction is no substitute for authentic human contact.
The article also claims that it would make obtaining a degree “to easy” and further states that “[We] want to become the nation’s leading public institution, not another pop-up ad”.
O’RLY?
Well now, if an online education devalues prestige then why is MIT offering online courses? There is no charge to learn the same course and content the students take in residence. About 1400 of MIT’s classes are available online for free right now, by the end of the year all of MIT’s classes (nearly 1800) will be freely available. A lot of Universities are also moving to selling their courses on iTunes for a very minimal cost (podcasts). Some of the Universities that participate in the iTunes podcasts are Berkeley, UCLA, Purdue, Stanford, NC State, Rice, Duke Law, Georgetown, Harvard, and many more nationally ranked Universities.