[M T]

[A bit off-topic.  Certainly no pot-shots here at a football player taking online courses.]

I went through very good public schools K-12, then to a prestigious scientific school for a BS, then to a private, pretty good school for a year of grad school, and then to a good (in my field) public school to finish my PhD.  I've had bad and great teachers at all (except the 1 year school).  Some good ones were very influential upon my development;  probably some of the bad ones were also influential for roads not taken. 

Don't we all have stories like the new faculty member I had that never faced the class but spent his whole time writing (math) on a blackboard as he talked to that board?  (I suppose I should say this freshman, advanced class had whittled down to just two students by the time he took over in the third quarter.)  Or the professor who just read from his text book?  Or the professor who changed the grading methodology just before the final.  But on the other hand, I had a few really good professors, who were interested in & involved in their undergrads.  Grad school was different, in a positive fashion.

I haven't taken any of the online classes, but I hope they are more than just SITN (Stanford Instructional TV Network) produced for the masses.

From my current viewpoint, far into my career, I don't think I would count being able to take a class in my pajamas as an important advantage of an online class, but fitting it into my schedule (both daily, and across a year) would be.  Being able to sample a class and decide whether it was right for me or not, would be a benefit.  Being able to focus in on a particular section of a class, might be a good thing.  I think businesses should take advantage of this to encourage their employees to stay current on techniques.

But what I'd miss in an online class is the esprit de corps of the students, the group momentum keeping us on task, the competition amongst students, and the benefit of someone else asking a question I hadn't yet realized I had.

Being in the computer science field, I know people who are doing these kind of classes at Stanford, across the nation, and across the world.  I believe creating these online classes is the new form of writing textbooks.  The author is creating a course of eduction & populating the content.

Maybe a year ago, I had a good discussion with a colleague about the effect of online courses to the big businesses we call "universities".  If we don't need to bring the students to the professor, what happens to the concept of a campus?  Campuses aren't dead, but they may be scaled back.  For one thing, there are laboratory facilities that you don't have for student use spread around in rural areas.  There are areas of study (performance arts, athletics) that require the students to congregate to an instructor.  But maybe community colleges can provide much of that.  For a field such as computer science, there is less need for a campus. 

So will traditional universities have less relevance?  Will a traditional college education also lose relevance as students can concentrate on, say, quantum information theory straight out of high school?  Maybe.

Proper evaluation of courses with thousands of students seems beyond what we know how to do.  One thing that a central authority can provide is validation and evaluation of the student's performance on a course or set of courses.  This involves more than just online testing.  Students would still want  the access to the best courses, as a Stanford might provide, and the recognition of the world of the quality of a degree from a school like Stanford.  For Stanford's part, in order to protect its reputation and tuition source, the school would still want to ensure that its students get a quality education, and are awarded grades and a degree based on the quality of the student's mastering of the subject matter. 

We're still in a transitional stage, but I expect schools will eventually provide as much care for the quality (including assurances about evaluation (no cheating)) of education via online courses as they do for their classrooms now.  I think if Andy Luck, Jr. chooses Stanford and takes online courses, they will be quality courses, and his performance in that class will be properly evaluated.


P.S., the experiences at my undergraduate school that bring back the best memories were athletics.  That's where I still have some friendships.  But, like a boot camp, I think that school probably helped me prepare for my later career, but not as directly as one might expect.

PPS, jacketree, I happen to know Maxine Turner (for her Civil War navy research), but I haven't seen her for a decade or so.  I'm curious what book you were referring to.

[M T]

[A bit off-topic.  Certainly no pot-shots here at a football player taking online courses.]

I went through very good public schools K-12, then to a prestigious scientific school for a BS, then to a private, pretty good school for a year of grad school, and then to a good (in my field) public school to finish my PhD.  I've had bad and great teachers at all (except the 1 year school).  Some good ones were very influential upon my development;  probably some of the bad ones were also influential for roads not taken. 

Don't we all have stories like the new faculty member I had that never faced the class but spent his whole time writing (math) on a blackboard as he talked to that board?  (I suppose I should say this freshman, advanced class had whittled down to just two students by the time he took over in the third quarter.)  Or the professor who just read from his text book?  Or the professor who changed the grading methodology just before the final.  But on the other hand, I had a few really good professors, who were interested in & involved in their undergrads.  Grad school was different, in a positive fashion.

I haven't taken any of the online classes, but I hope they are more than just SITN (Stanford Instructional TV Network) produced for the masses.

From my current viewpoint, far into my career, I don't think I would count being able to take a class in my pajamas as an important advantage of an online class, but fitting it into my schedule (both daily, and across a year) would be.  Being able to sample a class and decide whether it was right for me or not, would be a benefit.  Being able to focus in on a particular section of a class, might be a good thing.  I think businesses should take advantage of this to encourage their employees to stay current on techniques.

But what I'd miss in an online class is the esprit de corps of the students, the group momentum keeping us on task, the competition amongst students, and the benefit of someone else asking a question I hadn't yet realized I had.

Being in the computer science field, I know people who are doing these kind of classes at Stanford, across the nation, and across the world.  I believe creating these online classes is the new form of writing textbooks.  The author is creating a course of eduction & populating the content.

Maybe a year ago, I had a good discussion with a colleague about the effect of online courses to the big businesses we call "universities".  If we don't need to bring the students to the professor, what happens to the concept of a campus?  Campuses aren't dead, but they may be scaled back.  For one thing, there are laboratory facilities that you don't have for student use spread around in rural areas.  There are areas of study (performance arts, athletics) that require the students to congregate to an instructor.  But maybe community colleges can provide much of that.  For a field such as computer science, there is less need for a campus. 

So will traditional universities have less relevance?  Will a traditional college education also lose relevance as students can concentrate on, say, quantum information theory straight out of high school?  Maybe.

Proper evaluation of courses with thousands of students seems beyond what we know how to do.  One thing that a central authority can provide is validation and evaluation of the student's performance on a course or set of courses.  This involves more than just online testing.  Students would still want  the access to the best courses, as a Stanford might provide, and the recognition of the world of the quality of a degree from a school like Stanford.  For Stanford's part, in order to protect its reputation and tuition source, the school would still want to ensure that its students get a quality education, and are awarded grades and a degree based on the quality of the student's mastering of the subject matter. 

We're still in a transitional stage, but I expect schools will eventually provide as much care for the quality (including assurances about evaluation (no cheating)) of education via online courses as they do for their classrooms now.  I think if Andy Luck, Jr. chooses Stanford and takes online courses, they will be quality courses, and his performance in that class will be properly evaluated.


P.S., the experiences at my undergraduate school that bring back the best memories were athletics.  That's where I still have some friendships.  But, like a boot camp, I think that school probably helped me prepare for my later career, but not as directly as one might expect.

PPS, jacketree, I happen to know Maxine Turner (for her Civil War navy research), but I haven't seen her for a decade or so.  I'm curious what book you were referring to.