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Teacher Union Tries To Block Online Courses
itwbennett writes "Facing budget problems, University of California officials and state analysts say that expanding online courses could help them 'innovate out of the current crisis.' But the lecturers whose jobs are at stake see it differently. Now the UC chapter of the American Federation of Teachers is fighting to block online courses."
It is interesting to think that education by vending machine is turning out to be so successful. I can understand how degrees by coursework can benefit from this. It will be interesting if universities with real brands will ever allow master or doctorates to be via online study. When I did my post grad degree, I saw my supervisor for an hour every week, and I know I was lucky at that. I had a friend who was doing his PhD which saw his supervisor for a grand total of 20 hours during his entire research project. He basically just was included as a name in the research papers, and copied in on any and all email correspondence. Even thought is becoming ever more automated these days.
The argument does fall a bit on deaf ears when you are a student in the first two years at university, sitting in a lecture hall of 900 fellow students, while a teaching assistant goes through the material and can't answer any questions for your.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I also eventually ran across a clever explanation: The classroom lecture is the best method developed so far to teach students who can't read. That does describe a large fraction of the US college student population, of course, so the lecturers are still needed for them.
Your full explanation is of course nothing more than an attempt to ease your own ego. After all, in your own mind you must be better than those other people. So the explanation must involve them being inferior to you and the whole system not catering to you obviously superior mind.
Someone who doesn't need to prop up their own inferiority complex on the other hand may simply explain it as being the fact that different people learn differently. Many people can read a book but they'll simply learn better in a lecture setting.