Many students are learning nothing at B&M campuses.

Here is an interesting article for those who criticize DL:

"... a report based on the book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses found that after two years of college, 45% of students learned little to nothing. After four years, 36% of students learned almost nothing."

Full article: james altucher's 8 alternatives to college: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance

Some of the alternatives to college that the guy offers are rather lame.

 

Are you implying that because students at B & M schools learn less, that DL students learn more?

 

Are you implying that DL students learn less?

 

Good point, MC. I just found me a new sig line!

 

Would the the two of you just get a room already, lol.

:greddy2:

 

Just one of the great minds of our age recognizing another. You know, like Plato recognizing Aristotle. :smile:

 

That might be true...frankly I have been weighting between Georgetown University's courses and Capella University's.

Well, frankly..Georgetown University's name recognition, but Capella University's course is harder.

 

Well then, I, like Diogenes, recognize you both. :smirk:

On a more serious note... I am taking two humanities classes this semester that are designed as lib arts capstones. Both dl. I am shocked at the inadequacy of a large portion of my cohort. One would think that in senior level capstones, there would at least be proper sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. I'm no grammarphile, but I expect a certain quality of thought and communication in upper division work.

Now, this one anecdote does not prove the inadequacy of dl. Instead, as appropriately stated by MC (is he Plato or Aristotle?), these individuals are not pursuing an education, they are pursuing a degree. What is disturbing to me is the ratio of thinkers to seat fillers.

It is disheartening. Until I decide I don't really care about them anyways. Then it's better.

 

Yes, I am constantly appalled at the low level of scholarship, especially with grammar, that I have seen at my B&M experiences and my DL experiences. Even working on an MBA at Cal State, I hated having to do group projects because I would always get stuck with someone who wasn't up to par, or just didn't care. Either way, it always drove my grade down. I just finished a group project for my doctorate at Liberty and was relieved to see that all 6 of my cohorts put out first-class work. I'd like to think that issue diminishes once you get to graduate work.

Kind regards,
Aristotle

 

I think that the world and economy we live in has forced many people to re-examine their educational goals. Since the focus is so much about jobs I think it really comes down to work experience. A person can have a great degree from a respectable b&m school but if they lack the applicable work experience to back it up then its futile (in my opinion anyway). I think this is where the DL folks have the upper hand. Since most of the DL crowd is a little older with years of professional experience, they can play this to their advantage.

 

Well said, I concur.

 

There are several people in the company I work for who, despite having graduate degrees, have little grasp of even basic mathematical concepts. Part of my job involves statistical analysis, and it frustrates me when I have to explain to people possessing MBAs (and hence should have taken at least one class in statistics) what a standard deviation is (not even how it is calculated...just what it means). I am not asking anyone to perform a regression analysis...but some clue on working with numbers would be greatly appreciated.

 

Oh, I'm sure that kids at B&M campuses today are learning important things ... like how to do a beer bong. :banana::banana::banana::banana:

 

I know one thing they're not learning: how to use a damned index.