There is radical change taking place in the education world. Where will it go? How will we handle on-line cheating? What’s the credential going to look like?
Nobody knows. And that’s okay.
Huh? That’s okay?
Yeah.
{W}e think we’re at the very top of the first inning.
That’s the time perspective provided by Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, in an interview with MIT Technology Review: Q&A with Salman Khan.
The massive change underway has just gotten started. There are a number of issues to be addressed. Here’s just an idea on how to document that someone learned the material, which is the credential issue:
Here’s what I think it could look like in five years: the learning side will be free, but if and when you want to prove what you know, and get a credential, you would go to a proctoring center [for an exam]. And that would cost something. Let’s say it costs $100 to administer that exam. I could see charging $150 for it. And then you have a $50 margin that you can reinvest on the free-learning side.
Hmm. That would address the on-line cheating issue too.
Here’s some math applied to the concept mentioned: $150 times 5 classes for a typical semester = $750 a semester. Multiply by two semesters and then by 4 years. That would be $6,000 for a typical undergrad degree.
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