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Do Online Educational Badges Threaten Conventional Education Models?

Posted by timothy on from the harvard-lite-doesn't-have-the-same-ring dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Educational badges, which seem like a playful riff on Boy Scout skill patches, pose an existential crisis for colleges and universities. If students can collect credentials from MITx and Khan Academy and other free Web sites, why go to a campus?"

2 of 294 comments (clear)

  1. Re:IT's time to rework colleges and universities by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why in CS is there a BIG GAP from what you learn in college and the real job? tech schools have alot more real job skills.

    This is the way it is supposed to be. Universities are not vocational schools, and a degree in computer science is not a professional certification. People forgot that a long time ago...

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  2. Re:DeVry is a tech / trade school not a diploma mi by blackraven14250 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've also had a far different experience with professors at DeVry. They're far more available than the local county college professors IME, and have largely been willing to help with problems outside of the set curriculum they're given to actually teach (for most of the full time faculty and the more passionate part timers). In fact, most of the professors are kinda bummed that they have to follow such a strict set of topics for class lectures due to the limited time and top-down curriculum structuring, but love being asked the kinds of questions that aren't quite directly related to what they're supposed to teach.