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A Free, High Quality On-Line University?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the as-free-as-water-and-air dept.

Lawrence Brown writes: "Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, has donated $100 million towards creation of an on-line university which he says will offer an 'Ivy-League quality' education to anyone for free." Same idea as the Cooper Union. Okay, that's one billionaire putting his money to good use. What about the rest?

2 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. My Experiences by Amphigory · · Score: 5
    I'm currently working on my BA in Religious Studies (fully accredited) online. This is through a bricks & mortar univ. who have decided to establish an online program. (www.cnuonline.cnu.edu)

    Anyway, one thing I have found is that online education, at least the way CNU does it, totally shifts the responsibility of education from the teacher to the student. That is, it is not their responsibility to teach me, it is my responsibility to learn. If I don't understand, I need to go to the professor -- because he will not, can not, come to me.

    In essence, it is a process of discovery whereby I explore original writings in various subjects, and then discuss them (via a webboard thingy) with my classmates, then the professor grades based on how well I seem to have gotten it.

    I'm sure it works different for non-phil & religious studies classes -- but for these subjects, that's how they do it. All in all, it seems to work pretty well, at least if you're motivated. It forces students to learnd & think about the actual material, instead of this "what's going to be on the test" idiocy. OTOH, it's quite a bit more time consuming than a traditional class, at least for me.

    To me, this sounds like a great idea. Guys, like it or not, there are people who can't afford to go to college and are unwilling to mortgage the rest of their lives for a mediocre education. If this can be made to work, it will be a tremendous opportunity for people who know how to learn on their own. Can anyone say: geeks?

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  2. I think he is missing something... by leko · · Score: 5

    Any Ivy league education? I havn't read the article, but from that alone I have a problem. Now, lets just say a good education, because who cares about whether or not its actually Ivy, and IMHO, the coolest schools are not.

    Now, as I'm sure a huge chunk of slashdot readers are college students, or at least were, you all know that there is WAY more to school that what you could get off a web page. In perticular, the people around you. I have learned more from them then I have from classes, just about.

    And what about research? You can't really conduct research that requires any sort of lab online.

    I think this idea is missing the point of school, you're learning life skills as well as job skills.