All-You-Can-Eat College For $99-a-Month

theodp writes "Writing in Washington Monthly, Kevin Carey has seen the future of college education. It costs $99-a-month, and there's no limit on the number of courses you can take. Tiny online education firm StraighterLine is out to challenge the seeming permanency of traditional colleges and universities. How? Like Craigslist, StraighterLine threatens the most profitable piece of its competitors' business: freshman lectures, higher education's equivalent of the classified section. It's no surprise, then, that as StraighterLine tried to buck the system, the system began to push back, challenging deals the company struck with accredited traditional and for-profit institutions to allow StraighterLine courses to be transferred for credit. But even if StraighterLine doesn't succeed in bringing extremely cheap college courses to the masses, it's likely that another player eventually will."

Comments

Re:Community college, anyone?

[cbraescu1]

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

Re:It's more than courses.

[Ralph Spoilsport]

You know what I learned from "team" projects in college? Just do the whole damned thing yourself if you want any shot at passing.

Obviously, when you are in a position of authority, you will know to not hire those people.

I have learned in my working life (I'm 51, and have always had a job since the age of 15) that one does not work in isolation, and the people who do best are people who surround themselves with competent and trusted colleagues: teams, essentially. The team can be: Program director, project manager A, project manager B, project A programmers 1, 2, and 3, project B programmers 1, 2, 3, QA staff 1, 2, 3, Office Admin. - about a dozen people. How did programmer B3 get on the team? Because programmer B1 knew him in university, and knows he does good work. QA dude #2 is there because lead QA 1 was hired by project manager A who was in a school play with QA 1 and knows what kind of a critical mind he has.

It goes on from there.

Your critique, while interesting, and certainly valuable, is far off the mark of the Real World. We are a social species and our social administration is always done by people working with people. You can be the lone programmer, but if you need your entry badge renewed, you better be nice to the Admin. You can be the lone programmer, but if you're a dick, you will go from one project to another, and will be consistently passed over by the better connected and more socially adept programmers.

THAT is the real world - it is not one of individuals - it is one of societies of individuals. With humans, it is not the individual who is fittest, but the group that is fittest...

And these groups form at a young age and continue through life. Young people should nurture these relationships and develop tight social networks. It can mean the difference between a daily grind and a worthwhile vocation.

RS