Prepare for 'The End of College': Here's What Free Higher Ed Looks Like | Hacker News Reader

Prepare for 'The End of College': Here's What Free Higher Ed Looks Like

npr.org

17 pointstokenadult9 comments

Listening to the audio of the interview... the author describes visiting the MIT biology class in person. He sat in the back, felt distracted by someone else goofing around with his phone, and couldn't pause the lecture. He left feeling like the online lectures were better, as they were distraction-free and could be paused while watched.

I few years ago I took a 3-day class at MIT in person. I sat in the front, was totally absorbed in the material, and could ask questions of the lecturers in real-time. I left feeling like it was the best educational experience of my life, and while, as a working professional, I can't readily spend all day in school any more, I would like very much to take more short courses in person rather than online.

As Brian Goetz once said, "there is no good, only good for".

Online courses are great for being fed information. In fact, it's an incredibly optimal system, especially for people who don't want to ask questions and don't want to speak up.

On the other hand, online courses are horrible for people who want to actively participate in class. It's so much easier to just ask the professor a question as she's explaining some topic. Or to ask for feedback on your interpretation. Or to have a discussion with your classmates about part of the reading. Or to form study groups. I would have never been introduced to these cool research projects or to these really amazingly smart people if I hadn't gone to my university. Or all the companies that I met networking with the clubs I joined.

Education is great but if you need more, it's kind of lacking.

> It's so much easier to just ask the professor a question as she's explaining some topic. Or to ask for feedback on your interpretation. Or to have a discussion with your classmates about part of the reading. Or to form study groups. I would have never been introduced to these cool research projects or to these really amazingly smart people if I hadn't gone to my university. Or all the companies that I met networking with the clubs I joined.

Can I not just Google my question instead of asking a person?

Only if your question is already solved and published.

I've never sat in a lecture hall where the professor worked out a question that hadn't been solved/asked yet.

I ask tons of questions about unsolved problems. The point isn't to get an answer, but to get an understanding of the available tools and direction for further study. Oftentimes I will get "go talk to person X, they know something about this kind of thing."

If your question doesn't require interrupting the lecture for everyone and forcing the lecturer to respond to you at the moment a question occurs to you, then you have multiple options. You could pause the video and ask a chat room. At somewhat greater expense, but still nothing close to MIT tuition, a chat room could even be staffed with TAs and made interactive with audio and video. Pause the lecture video, switch to the chat room, ask a TA, and get a brief explanation with a live, shared whiteboard on your screen.

My point is that there are many hybrid solutions that aren't at the extreme of either being live, in the front row chatting with the lecturer during the lecture at full MIT price (after winning the admissions lottery) or the other extreme of just watching a recording. In most classes, there are a lot of people in the world who could answer whatever question you want to ask, and if the answer doesn't have to be immediate (a threaded forum, for example), the cost could be nearly free.

(Note that what I'm talking about applies to motivated adult learners, not young kids.)

I see more of an amalgamation of what he's describing and what's currently offered. For many fields, it requires hands on with labs. While these will increasingly be virtualized, there's still something to be said for hands-on, field studies, physical ed, etc.

A chemistry major still will inevitably need access to chemistry equipment. A wave-form physics major will still need access to a laser and so on...

I think you need to ask why we have colleges. Colleges act as both an educator and as a filter. If you look at the people taking MOOCs, most already have a degree and are not looking for a piece of paper. I think that online schools can take on the education role of a college, but not the filter role as they allow anyone to take their classes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com