Future of online teaching and open course ware type classes - your preditcions

freedom462

[goodwithagun]

There are great online programs that require teachers who are willing to use rigorous curricula. Quality, effective teachers will be required. These programs will be used by families that demand quality teachers.

There are really terrible programs like one in my county in which the “lessons” are assessed using mostly multiple choice tests. Each student in the course receives the exact same assessments, all of which are reused year after year. Because the assessments are multiple choice, it is impossible to know who is cheating.

So it comes down to school choice. Online programs that employ quality educators using effective curriculum will prosper, and those without will fail. However, in obama’s America he would never let the cream rise to the top so anything is certainly possible.

[freedomfiter2]

Keeping people from thinking for themselves is a close second.

[VRW Conspirator]

I teach in a public high school...

Technology is here. The system revolves around a grade(variable) per semester (constant). Flip it. The only grade would be a A- (90%) and the variable is the time it take to get there. More conducive with STEM type classes and college level.

Well choreographed classes with multiple "branch" lessens are there for the making. The "A" students would zoom through while the "C" students trudge along, both completing courses with the same competency level.

[longtermmemmory]

the issue is liability.

a traditional university degree is a shield in negligent hiring lawsuits.

[blackdog]

Unless it’s a parent driven or mentor driven choice (in the beginning) it’s not going to work. Everything wrong with education is a parent problem at it’s root, with the leaves feeding the teachers and industry. All we see are the leaves. We need to sure up the roots.

[Billthedrill]

I work in the IT department of a state university, so I can tell you what people around here actually are doing. It's a big state, and outreach programs are vital to continued funding. It's top of the priority list for our new president.

Content delivery is getting cheaper. Websites are getting better. Users are getting more accustomed to the weirdness of receiving education this way.

You have to pick your punches, though. It's a lot easier teaching something like history online than something requiring physical feedback, say, yoga or maybe drawing. But a generation of online games players are actually pretty used to the sort of feedback that turns a virtual classroom into something more than a glorified television set. Who is not used to it are the professors - I have a dear friend whose daily struggle with the mechanics of running a minimal computerized A/V setup is a real challenge for him. The educators are needing to be educated first.

It isn't the future, it's the present. Personally I like the intimacy of a classroom, but it means that I have to get there. The low here will be 1 degree Fahrenheit this evening with -28 wind chill. My computer is in a nice warm room with beer handy. Online education sounds pretty good in those circumstances.

[longtermmemmory]

if employers hire people with online degrees on the same level as those with ivy league degrees then they will matter.

[Valpal1]

Depends on how destructive the collapse is. However, it is very likely the welfare state will come to a complete halt. Can’t hand out government handouts if there is no government to hand them out.

So yep, everyone will have to work or steal to eat and I expect that deadly force used on thieves will make work more attractive than usual.

The collapse of the regulatory state and the end of endless compliance forms to be filled out will allow many former teatsuckers to become small business owners.

What I don’t see is a slow rolling back of the current system. I think change will come in a series of unpleasant jolts.

[freedom462]

Thank you very much for that. I do note though, that if it is the present, as you have said, than that suggests it is not going to entirely replace classroom teaching since in the present, primary education is still overwhelmingly done face to face. In addition, as I noted initially, colleges in the present still have many more students who want the full classroom experience than they know what to do with.

[discostu]

They’re good if it’s a subject you’re strong in, or if you’re the type prefers reading a book to taking a class. If you’re weak on the subject though it’s a killer. My wife’s done a lot of online classes in subjects she was good in and breezed them, then she took macro-economics which she knew nothing about and it was a nightmare. Luckily for her owing to a lifetime hobby of FR like discussion I’m pretty solid on macro-economics and could steer her through until she got the core concepts locked in, but without some sort of teacher she would would have been doomed.

[Billthedrill]

I think that's a fair take, yes. One reason classroom teaching is even still out there is because it works very well. But there are certain limits - you don't get much of that intimacy in a Chem 101 auditorium with 300 fellow students and one professor. Another issue is the A/V equipment necessary to run something like a virtual seminar is still a little out of the reach of the average non-computer-geek consumer, although it's getting much better. I've done seminars like that and maybe it was the novelty, but they're more fun than a sit-around-the-table-staring-at-one-another sort.

There are also challenges at the user end. If your classroom is a bedroom with a computer in it and outside the bedroom are three children, two dogs, and a cat demanding your attention, you're not going to enjoy the isolation and concentration advantages of a classroom. We're all still working that out.

[Jonty30]

It will only get better and it’s a win-win for everybody. The university could pay some superstar teacher to produce a high quality lecture series on the course and upload it onto video. Anybody can download it and watch it as often as needed. Since there is no infrastructure to maintain, and the number of students who can take the course could multiply exponentially, the costs of education should drop like a rock.

A student would only have to go to campus to take the parts of courses they really can’t do at home.

[vladimir998]

I don’t think that is necessary. Already we know people can get hired without having any Ivy League degree. Thus, the issue is not competing against the Ivy League resident degrees but against all resident degrees period. And all of those state school and non-Ivy League private schools will water down the value of the Ivy League in that regard.

As college prices continue to skyrocket - with no end in sight - and more and more people poke holes in the “bubble” of higher education it is simply inevitable that online degree programs will fill the gap. The next generation of college students - glued to their iPhones, hating contracts and commitments, and loving portability - will demand it. The market will respond. Money will be made. The Ivy League will do fine anyway (with foreign students, minorities, affirmative action students, and legacy students).

[TurboZamboni]

Once online college becomes more popular, the Statists in Congress will make a law taking away their accreditation.

It'll be devalued like the US dollar.

[EVO X]

It isn't the future, it's the present. Personally I like the intimacy of a classroom, but it means that I have to get there. The low here will be 1 degree Fahrenheit this evening with -28 wind chill.

I supported one of the popular course capture systems when they were getting off the ground. It got its start because they enrolled more students than than the lecture hall could hold. Crappy weather would be a perfect use for such a system and was used while I was maintaining it..

[Mears]

I have no specific knowledge but certainly hope the on-line universities become mainstream.

My reason is financial.I have a grand daughter entering college and I am stunned at the costs.

.

[Billthedrill]

Oh, yeah. The friend I mentioned is a Professor Emeritus of History so he's a little long in the tooth. He filmed a course on Greek Mythology that was available for decades as a watch-only, take the test course.

"You know how we made that?" he asked me. "Lights, a sound man, two cameras, a week per session and they had me in makeup. You know how they do it now? The kids hold up their (censored) iPhones in class!"

[freeandfreezing]

...but without some sort of teacher she would would have been doomed.

Although the subject and how it was presented may have been a big part of the problem, there are on-line courses where the students have direct interaction with the teacher. By using either audio or video conferencing technology some online schools offer what amount to regular classes. But instead of being in the room with the teacher you are watching and listening to them on your computer, and their blackboard is a window on your screen.

There are also schools which offer one on one tutoring on-line. For example, for a surprisingly small amount of money you can have a native speaker of a foreign language tutor you over a Skype call.

The same high speed network that enables Skype and Facetime also enables real time interaction with a remotely located teacher.

[freeandfreezing]

I suspect that online teaching will become more important in the future. More so at first for college, career, and post college training, and then for K-12 schools, but more in the upper years than the early years.

It won't replace traditional schools, but will provide another option for some kids - like the virtual high schools and online colleges we have now - but it will also enhance and perhaps change the way traditional schools function. Instead of each school having a French teacher, for example, maybe a few schools will share one teacher using remote, online class participation.

Already kids can get a lot of help with homework, etc. online. Continued growth in this area will ultimately lead to a situation where you can find help on just about any problem you have.

I've had first hand experience with online K-12 education, and it can work very well in a homeschooling context.

[Wuli]

on-line education will continue to grow

how much traditional education loses out to online education and if it will someday fall by wayside is yet to be seen