Posted on 08/30/2013 7:43:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Georgia Institute of Technology rocked the higher education world when it announced plans to offer a fully online master’s degree in computer science for roughly one-seventh the price of its on-campus equivalent – less than $7,000. The project is powered by a joint venture with Udacity, an online higher-education course provider that stands to earn 40 percent of the tuition revenues. The AT&T Corporation, which is providing two-thirds of the estimated ramp-up costs, expects to funnel existing employees through the program and recruit new ones at the back-end of it.
Reaction to the news has been mixed.
Online education advocates are excited about what they see as an opportunity for broad access to substantially more affordable higher learning.
Others worry that the wholesale democratization of higher education will lead to deteriorating outcomes and the diluted quality of advanced degrees—particularly as a larger number of students are attracted to the courses. There is also a fair amount of academic carping about the competition—how joint ventures such as this will hijack resources that might otherwise be used to develop and deliver the staff’s own groundbreaking programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Absolutely! It’s amazing how, in my field anyway, it’s darn hard to get a door open without the resident, predetermined ‘qualifications’ which, more often than not, are part of the larger ‘self-licking ice cream cone.’ But IF you can get the interview and think on your feet, you are almost always golden.
With due respect, what a bunch of bullshit. You would have us believe that the person who took the smart way, the efficient way, the way that avoids the orgies and the liberal indoctrination and the drinking and the drugs and the oppressive debt....is the one the employer would AVOID. HAH.
Maybe, if we’re talking about another job in govt or education. In the real world, totally different.
Oh course older people know nothing of this modern computer stuff. /s
The question remains, how do we get these online students to attend the mandatory sensitivity training and apology-for-being-white re-education camp outings?
Besides, I bet 99% of the Apple computers out there are used exactly like a vt100 - as an I/O device for a computer somewhere else. Like Facebook.
Well of course...makes sense. Then again, the online degree programs are not trying to prevent traditional ed from going on inside brick and mortars.....but.....
Colleges price gouge plain and simple and I find it funny that every time there is a gas shortage and a single gas station raises its price higher than usual, there is Rep. Chuck Schumer here in New York holding press conferences on the gas station lot screaming how he is going to fine them out of business and arrest the owners. But a school like NYU which now charges close to $60,000 a year, which has become THE largest real estate owners in New York city, who regularly destroy small business owners by raising their rents through the roof? Oh that is perfectly OK. Greenwich village now looks like Rodeo drive with all the high end fashion stores popping up, entire neighborhoods wiped out by NYU, but some guy charging an extra 50 cents during a gas shortage gets fined and arrested.
While I haven’t done a Microsoft certification test in a long time (14-15 years), there used to be quite a number of places set up to administer them, and similar Cisco tests. GA Tech could be using a place like that.
We interview folks and decide from there. Bachelors Degrees are viewed as a commodity at this point and Masters are not far behind. Your assumptions regarding one’s education are just assumptions—and poor ones at that.
Congratulations on your degree. I hope you enjoy your safe middle-management position while it lasts. Always remember to stick to the well-worn gray path and never look beyound the curtain—there’s a scary world filled with strange ideas filled with people who think radically different from your herd!
The IT industry is filled with gatekeepers like you, but it has never been advanced by them.
A BUMP and a Thanks
No, I am talking only about a couple of restricted situations: the old-fashioned thinking of the traditionalist mainline white-shoe employer looking to hire an employee with an MBA, and the company that needs to hire hands-on lab scientists. (There are actually some things you have to learn how to do in person in science and medicine.)
As I said, I’ve taken some online courses myself. It was a great experience. If these online places can solve the problem of honesty, it will be a fantastic option. And I don’t think there should be prejudice against online degrees from rigorous, reputable programs that make sure papers and tests are done by the student who purports to have learned this material.
Wow, 1883?
When I was preparing my oldest daughter to enter the corporate world, I told her the most important thing to learn was how to function in the corporate, cubicle farm environment. The job skills can be taught to any average intelligence person. The people that SHINE are the ones others find themselves wanting to work with. And though that is partly based on job competence, the lions share is based on how you are to work with.
People hire someone with whom they want to spend 8 hours a day.
I always thought that the best teachers in the world should do online courses and get the money themselves.
Too many colleges employ overpaid, lazy, uninterested and unaccessible teachers with bad attitudes. Perhaps people are thinking about alternatives to college college to get the information they need to pursue their chosen careers. I like this trend.
I never would have guessed. Never.
Well in some narrow instances I would agree of course. And in some narrow fields, hands on is very necessary. Your first post came off as very general and wide ranging.
And I suspect we’ll see the emergence of hybrid programs....online classes with real world internships and so on. In fact, I’m sure of it.
Not applicable to every career path, but you’ll see it.
...more evidence that an MBA doesn’t necessarily equate to any understanding of business.....really, it’s shocking.
If your writing is representative of what I'll get from an on-campus GW MBA, I'll pass. You consistently post poorly written drivel.
Prior to your post up thread, I would have guessed that you never made it through High School.
Of course, I'm assuming you are telling the truth about your MBA.
Spot on. All you need to do is get in the door. Really, if you’re good, all you need is an interview.
He had some teething issues but the speed at which he learned from his mistakes was impressive. Within three years he had been promoted all the way to DBA, which was a big deal in that particular area.
When our son was in school, occasionally he’d have an online class (this was during his BA days, all Master’s classes were in person.)
I asked him was there anyway that the online classes inserted any safeguards into their online tests. As to someone taking it for you, no safeguard exists. But as to a student who was taking their own tests, the profs, knowing they could be open book tests, packed a lot of questions in a short time frame. He felt this was to ensure that the student knew the info, instead of spending time just looking it up at as the question was asked.
Other than that, there are no safeguards.
Problem with higher education, I saw, was the practice of “groups” and “group projects.” You always had one or two slouchers letting everyone else do their work (because it was needed to complete the project) then being rewarded for the work of the other members.
Of course, that seems to be a good preparation for a lot of workplaces these days :)
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