Posted on 09/05/2009 11:16:35 AM PDT by Clint Williams
theodp writes
"Writing in Washington Monthly, Kevin Carey has seen the future of college education. It costs $99-a-month, and there's no limit on the number of courses you can take. Tiny online education firm StraighterLine is out to challenge the seeming permanency of traditional colleges and universities. How? Like Craigslist, StraighterLine threatens the most profitable piece of its competitors' business: freshman lectures, higher education's equivalent of the classified section. It's no surprise, then, that as StraighterLine tried to buck the system, the system began to push back, challenging deals the company struck with accredited traditional and for-profit institutions to allow StraighterLine courses to be transferred for credit. But even if StraighterLine doesn't succeed in bringing extremely cheap college courses to the masses, it's likely that another player eventually will."
That’s too bargain basement to expect a quality education.
bookmmark
I’ll sell you that course for $300. That should make you feel better.
Entrepreneurship is alive and well in the USofA.
Maybe they’ll make it, maybe they won’t. But they’ve opened up an avenue for other Entrepreneurs.
This is why I love Judeo-Christian United States of America. An idea can become a business and a business can become a corporation all because of an idea.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of an idea.
Online education has been around since the late 70’s - Plato by Control Data had touch screens so it's not a new concept.
Our daughter is taking the Johns Hopkins Gifted & Talented Math, online. It's not “cheap”. Most kids are not in the program. You must be in the 95 percentile of a national test, S.A.T. or they will accept a state test to qualify. Next, you take their test and at least half don't make it into their program. So you are talking about the top 2-3% in the U.S. and internationally.
The online course to bright kids is still a challenge. She listens to lectures, takes notes and does exercises until she masters the topic. It's customized to focus in on her individual weaknesses. When the course is done, she'll take a final for her entire grade.
Sometimes she'll ask me about a concept since the lectures are just someone talking and showing her concepts. It's a concept driven course. She can't interact with the lecturer when she has the question. Instead she must wait till the lecture is over, write something about her question and schedule time via the white board, or phone meeting. There is a lag time that hurts the learning process when there is no direct interaction when the question occurs. Now these are bright kids. Others not very sharp will do poorly with this online approach.
We are simply using it for the status and to allow grade skipping with decent math. This particular program is viewed well in academia and actually teaches traditional math but by using concepts. So I see pros and cons but a $99.00 student will not get you the kind of education I would hope you seek and again, it has some cons.
Interesting concept. Does anyone know what colleges will accept transfer? Is there a list somewhere? I would like to know that before I were to begin.
I see where you can only take one course at a time. Not a problem for me though. I’m sure science courses w/a lab requirement might be a little hard to take online?
What I am looking forward to is a complete, comprehensive elementary and secondary school curricula that would take full advantage of modern computer multimedia, for a tailored and individualized education.
That is, a home school student, or a public school student, should be able have a semi-private educational area, facing a large multimedia screen, where they have interactive instruction, perhaps alternating in two languages, while they respond with a keyboard, a mouse, voice to text recognition, an electronic script writing pad, and touchscreen input.
While they are learning, they are practicing, reviewing and being evaluated. Their speed at which they are learning and comprehending is invisibly monitored, to catch both learning spurts and slumps as they happen. Emphasis can change if they are falling behind in a subject, or jumping ahead in a subject, to keep them up to date or ahead, based on their current mood.
Their education is fully transportable to right where they left off as well.
Curriculum items can be mostly popular programs around the country, or can integrate tailor made subjects that are more responsive to parental wishes. Thus there is no nonsense like the endless debate over whether to teach language phonics, or have children remain illiterate with “whole language” instruction. If liberals want their kids to be ignorant and uncompetitive, that is their choice, but they can no longer force it on others.
Yet this will not eliminate the need for teachers, or teaching parents, by a long chalk. But instead of them spending their time on the lowest levels of instruction, such as memorization, they can devote more time to higher level concepts. Much more challenging.
Since a system like this avoids so much wasted time, curricula can incorporate many more subjects to instruction, including penmanship, music, art, even etiquette, etc.
“Interesting concept. Does anyone know what colleges will accept transfer? Is there a list somewhere? I would like to know that before I were to begin.”
That’s another concern. Some are accredited and some are not. I think University of Phoenix offers online courses but you’ll have to do your own research on them.
“I see where you can only take one course at a time. Not a problem for me though. I’m sure science courses w/a lab requirement might be a little hard to take online?”
Labs online would not work out well. That’s where you have to be careful that your education doesn’t become a joke.
“Interesting concept. Does anyone know what colleges will accept transfer? Is there a list somewhere? I would like to know that before I were to begin.”
That’s another concern. Some are accredited and some are not. I think University of Phoenix offers online courses but you’ll have to do your own research on them.
“I see where you can only take one course at a time. Not a problem for me though. I’m sure science courses w/a lab requirement might be a little hard to take online?”
Labs online would not work out well. That’s where you have to be careful that your education doesn’t become a joke.
And yet you pay 10K/term for a “quality” university. . .and you get foreign grad students teaching you.
Academia has gotten bloated: time for it to go on a diet. . . .
Check out Abeka. They have it. http://www.abeka.com
Ping for later
A question?:
If I take one of these online courses, then transfer the credit say to Fort Hays State University, can I then transfer it to another university, say the University of Georgia, to be used towards my degree from there?
Fine. $400 and I’ll throw in a genuine certificate!
There was a time that accreditation was essential for a college degree to be worth anything.
But, accreditation, like many things, has been so watered down that it no longer is as meaningful as it once was.
The $99/month unlimited courses sounds like a possible degree-mill. It depends on how ‘established’ colleges and universities ‘recognize’ transfer credits from that website.
Yep that’s the same question I have. How do you go about the double transfer.
No cheap fake Rolex for you...
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