Proposal in Texas to move higher ed classes to MOOCs
August 27, 2012 at 10:48 am 2 comments
Admittedly, this is Texas, whose state Republican platform recently recommended no teaching of higher-order thinking skills or critical thinking skills. It may be an outlier. It may also be a leading indicator. The Houston Chronicle has published an op-ed which proposes replacing more university courses with MOOCs.
Number five is the most cost-saving recommendation: Move more classes online. Online learning will become to education what the forward pass was to football. It will revolutionize.
MIT, for example, has implemented an online program free of charge, and for a small fee, it will award a certificate of compliance. The first course, Circuits and Electronics, drew 120,000 registrants in the first month.
via Texas can cut down on the cost of higher education – Houston Chronicle.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: higher education, MOOC, perception of university.
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Computing Ed Research - Guzdial's Take 
1.
Andy Ko | August 27, 2012 at 12:05 pm
The ever-increasing out-of-pocket cost to students and families is unsustainable. But the solution isn’t to teach students less, defund research, and have students stop coming to campus. There are plenty of cheaper alternatives that already do these things. Moreover, we’d lose what distinguishes universities from all other institutions of higher ed.
Luckily, at least for public universities, the cost isn’t ever-increasing, since the cost per student at most public universities has been pretty stable over the past two decades. It’s just a question of how much of the cost is shared by state taxpayers. Taxpayers have decided they don’t want to share the cost and so they’re having to pay it on their own.
The columnist also has some laughable ideas about teaching and research:
Two classes per semester plus committees and service is is a full time job if you’re doing it right. Sure, many faculty don’t do it right, but increasing load or using MOOCs doesn’t solve this, it just normalizes mediocrity.
2.
Mike Byrne | August 27, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Texas has almost nothing to do with the op-ed piece you’re citing, other than it appeared in a Texas newspaper. It describes recommendations that are proposed nationwide, not just for Texas. What’s critical is that the op-ed in the Chronicle comes from the “Center for College Affordability and Productivity,” an organization that expressly wants to mitigate “the burden that colleges impose on society.” Warning bells there, at least for me. You can read a more complete version of their vision (which says nothing specifically about Texas) here:
http://centerforcollegeaffordability.org/25-ways/full-report
It appears to be a mixture of sense (reduce textbook costs) and nonsense (eliminate excessive academic research).