Comments on: Bricks-and-mortar school is cool; online drools

By: The Humanities: They’re good for what ails you! « More or Less Bunk

The Humanities: They’re good for what ails you! « More or Less Bunk — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:19:00 +0000

[...] That’s not just “MBA thinking,” it’s snake oil salesmanship. I see no studies to back that up, and fully expect if there are any they used multiple choice questions to get to that conclusion. More importantly, letting people learn at their own pace allows them to drop out at their own pace and pay a lot more money for that privilege, as Historiann has repeatedly reminded us. [...]

By: koshembos

koshembos — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:11:02 +0000

Now when kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up, the expected answer is: an oligarch; we are screwed.

Students may vote with their presence, but universities, states and the country are run by people that don’t care about education and officials are elected by the oligarchs and not by the people.

Even at a rich university like mine, they don’t care about excellence, they want you to bring grant money and a lot of it. That doesn’t help us either.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:13:45 +0000

I hear you, Notorious. Do they love us because we're great, or because we're the best they can afford? I guess my thinking is that smart administrators and university presidents can use these census numbers to prove that we're serving our state, and start to build an argument about how the state should serve us as well so that we can continue to serve the next generation. Then again, I have a feeling that (to take a page out of Indyanna's book) the kind of people who get hired as administrators these days are of the "more with less, and less = excellence!" bent. And I do mean bent.

By: Notorious Ph.D.

Notorious Ph.D. — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:03:01 +0000

My employer constantly trumpets its high rankings in a “Best Universities” survey for our region. The fine print is that the category we’re constantly ranked highly in is “best value,” which is great news for our students, but from a faculty standpoint, this could be read as another example of “Excellence without Money.” So I’m never sure how to feel about it.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:00:13 +0000

If one is a president of any college or university that delivers courses online, one probably should say (and maybe even believe) that online courses are the equivalent of f2f ones. Then, of course, one simply mandates that one’s faculty make it so. Some would call that leadership, I believe.

Thus, many college presidents will answer polls by saying they believe the two kinds of courses are of equal value to students–although those same college presidents may hope online courses cost less to deliver and are thus less valuable in another specific sense.

By: Jonathan Rees

Jonathan Rees — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:49:06 +0000

Wow, the good news keeps coming from all directions. Now if the excellence without money brigade would only get around to raises for faculty…

By: Spanish Prof

Spanish Prof — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:45:49 +0000

As happy as I am to hear the news, it doesn’t mean that university administrators (from real places) won’t continue to push for online education. I work at a religious PUI, and they are pushing for that. Luckily, the most powerful departments (philosophy, theology) are resisting very hard.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:35:39 +0000

So what’s a’matter, you guys can’t do more with less, like us back here in the East, nestled among what used to be the tallest mountains in North America, they say? Every year we do more with less granite, more with less porphyry, more with less schist, more with more library journal cancellations. The geoscience guys don’t like it one bit, but the rest of us muddle along.

Oh wait, my associate vice dean for strategic redeployment processes interview is NEXT week. Wrong sound byte. Sorry about that.

By: Bardiac

Bardiac — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:06:22 +0000

Yep! Taxpayers have to see that we public schools are providing a public good, not just an individual good, and be willing to share in the costs as well as the benefits.

I’m not holding my breath, though.