Tag: education revolution

Recorded lectures are a great starting point for online education

I finished listening to two series of lectures from Great Courses. This is the first time I’ve used their material. They have great stuff.

I’ve long thought that the concept of taking their recorded, college-level lectures and adding a reading list plus a test could produce a high-quality, college-level class. I’m more convinced now than before.

The courses were presented by subject experts. Even with my above average level of knowledge on these two topics, I learned a lot and was stretched intellectually.

The courses were Continue reading “Recorded lectures are a great starting point for online education”

At one of the state universities, do students pay tuition to fund instructors or the non-instructional support staff?

My central point: Merely based on cost structure, the emerging alternatives to traditional higher education have tremendous room to maneuver.  There are huge opportunities.

By way of background, there is a host of comments I want to make about education, the energy industry, publishing and space exploration. Yes, I plan to tie them all together, but haven’t allocated the time to do so. One part of that discussion will be the radical changes taking place in higher ed.  Bear with me while this posts advances those yet-to-be-introduced ideas.

Carpe Diem suggests the answer to my question in their headline title – Administrative bloat at Ohio State, where the ratio of full-time non-instructional staff to full-time faculty is more than 6-to-1.

Continue reading “At one of the state universities, do students pay tuition to fund instructors or the non-instructional support staff?”

Survey of changes in education technology and preliminary assessments

There is a lot of change education. Huge online classes.  Electronic textbooks incorporating ‘net technology.

Here is a survey of 10 developments and an initial assessment of which won’t go anywhere and which are huge hits. The article is Many-to-One vs. One-to-Many: An Opinionated Guide to Education Technology, by Arnold Kling.

The key distinction Mr. Kling perceives will produce the most change is adjusting away from the one-to-many model where one teacher or professor lectures to a group. The new concept he suggests is many-to-one, which he describes as: Continue reading “Survey of changes in education technology and preliminary assessments”

You can hire someone to take your online class. Um, anyone see an ethics problem here?

We Take Your Class is a web service that offers to have a tutor take your online test or complete an online project. They can even take your entire online course.

Wow.  Cheating for hire.

You can find them here on your own.

Their pitch:

Continue reading “You can hire someone to take your online class. Um, anyone see an ethics problem here?”

Higher Ed revolution is well underway – Marginal Revolution University opens its electronic doors.

I’ve been wanting to start commenting on the big changes in on-line education. Wanted to introduce the ideas as a part of a big series of posts I have in mind, but change is running far faster than my limited time to write. So I’ll start commenting before having chance to introduce the overarching idea….

Two economists, Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, have started an on-line college. Marginal Revolution University will offer their first class on Development Economics starting October 1st.

The professors are structuring their curriculum for the online environment from scratch. Videos will be recorded uniquely for the course and will be structured in short, five-minute blocks.

Here is a short description of the course:

Continue reading “Higher Ed revolution is well underway – Marginal Revolution University opens its electronic doors.”

Higher education in trouble

There is a tsunami wave out in the ocean that’s headed toward the higher ed shore.

Don’t know exactly how tall it is or how wide. Can’t quite make out the exact form but it is large and it is on the way.

The tsunami is online courses.

Continue reading “Higher education in trouble”

More college student loan debt than loans on houses?

Yup.

That might be why there is a serious danger of a higher-education bubble.

Read this comment by Holly Finn in today’s Wall Street Journal article Watching the Ivory Tower Topple:

In this new educational model, the shy and the easily distracted get advantages. You can rewind a video and watch whenever and as many times as you like. Plus, teachers save time with computerized grading and students save money. (U.S. college debt, nearly $1 trillion, is bigger than housing or credit card debt.)

Continue reading “More college student loan debt than loans on houses?”

We can see the contours of the revolution in higher education

Transformation of the music industry is old news. Retail, publishing, and newspaper industries are changing before our very eyes.  The Wall Street Journal described that Target stores are now working to deal with the ‘showrooming’  factor in their stores. That’s the trend that is devastating big box electronic stores (Best Buy) and booksellers (remember Borders?).

Up next?  Well, maybe not next but soon, will be higher education.

Here’s three articles that paint the picture:

Continue reading “We can see the contours of the revolution in higher education”

Radical change on the near horizon for education

The rapid change affecting other areas of the economy is hitting primary and secondary education.

The Wall Street Journal had a long article recently: My Teacher Is an App

Nationwide, an estimated 250,000 students are enrolled in full-time virtual schools, up 40% in the last three years, according to Evergreen Education Group, a consulting firm that works with online schools. More than two million pupils take at least one class online, according to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a trade group.

Continue reading “Radical change on the near horizon for education”