As President Obama develops his second-term agenda, his administration will no doubt focus on a range of higher-education priorities, including affordability, attainment levels, and career preparation. Yet as important as these issues are, something more fundamental is happening: We’re witnessing the end of higher education as we know it.
This transformation is being brought on by “MOOCs” — massive open online courses being offered for little or no cost through entities like edX, Coursera, and Udacity, which aggregate classes from multiple universities onto a single computer-based platform. Millions of people are already utilizing them to tap into higher learning.
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Dr Aoun: We have already witnessed the end of higher ed in this country, you just have missed it. When you charge $50k per year to attend your university, you are priced way over the income levels of the middle class. You have done this for years, pricing college out of our reach. Just like the housing bubble, that raised prices beyone what anyone could afford until it burst and brought down the economy. Same will happen to you and fellow Univ Presidents who make millions of dollars per year . How do you get paid more than the US President? And all your Deans and VPs ? The college debt in this country is beyond reason and will soon burst. the middle class kids who borrowed , to attend colleges like yours, and now have to pay back large sums of money, with limited jobs prospects in a weak econonmy...we are doomed
Don't forget about the underground companies that will be offering to take those courses for you. On line courses are a joke.
Thank you for a well thought out assessment. I am very conservative on education and, while I think people can learn skills on-line or, for that matter from video games, I think the opportunity to spend 4 years of one's development on a college campus is under-rated.
It is ironic that, at a time when we are worrying about our economy being outsourced, Americans are more likely to save for a new kitchen than for their child's education. We allow seats to go increasingly to the children of the world whose parents value American higher education.
I hope that on-line ed in the US eventually will be reserved for skills based learning, the outcomes of which can be assessed by a computer. It would also serve a function in teaching young children who cannot get to school or whose "learning differences" prevent them from succeeding in a classroom. The potential for using hand held devices and wifi to reach children across the world is obvious.
However, it would be a tragedy if we continue to dumb down education with standardized inputs and outputs and neglect what community and dialogue contribute to personal growth and civilization.
"Online education" is an oxymoron. The fact that many students cannot learn this way is demonstrated by the low graduation rates of exclusively online universities. Students need interaction with one another in a physical classroom and the opportunity to consult with professors face-to-face. College was affordable in the 50s, 60s, and 70s because of the commitment of the federal and state governments to higher education in the form of substantial scholarships for low-to-middle-income students. The cost of higher education soared since that time because of the severe cutbacks in federal financial aid that began with President Reagan, who preferred to fund tax cuts for the rich and to replace grants with loans that were a bonanza for the banks. With the shrinkage in federal aid colleges have had to put more of their own funds into scholarships. To compensate for this they raise tuition on those students who can afford it, and unfortunately, on many who cannot. While the obscene compensation of a few university presidents should certainly be questioned, the real issue is the lack of our government's investment in education.