Research PhD's are Ruining the Education at B&M Universities? Online is Better?

Here's another interesting tidbit from Inside American Education by Sowell. The author states that requiring professors to do so much research and publication is keeping them out of the classroom and thus the brightest minds are not actually teaching our undergrad students; it's usually assistants and grad students that are teaching the students. The kids are not getting access to the actual experts and teaching them has become a low priority in many universities because of the "publish or perish" mentality. According to Sowell, this is ruining the quality of education at our universities.

Is it possible that online classes are better? In many cases, students do have access to the professors where they might not in a B&M environment.

 

Wow, what a break through. What is next...the world is not flat?!

 

With prepackaged classes offered through online classes, students do not learned much that is new and current from the experts either. Besides online classes entailing paying schools money for them to tell you what you should learn by yourself, most online classes do not have up-to-date content; they still teach "old stuff" (stuff that was current in 2004; we see this in fields like IT where product/technology versions alone may necessitate complete overhaul of course contents) based on when the course was created.

Additionally, in many cases, online prepackaged classes are taught by un-committed adjuncts who hold other full-time jobs in the day time (other than the money they make, their online classes is their last concern), and it is up to the students to read the book, write the paper, and that's it - with zero interaction with professors. Except taught synchronously (not asynchronously) by real experts who are active in their field (not by adjuncts who teach at 20 different online schools just for the money), I doubt that the majority of online classes available today are better alternatives to the issue addressed in this article.

 

I actually take offense to the statement that they are taught by uncommitted adjuncts. If you think it is all for the money, it is not. Some actually want to teach...hell at least the students are dealing with a PhD rather then a grad student that was probably taught by another grad student!

When you say, "...with zero interaction with professors. Except taught synchronously (not asynchronously) by real experts who are active in their field (not by adjuncts who teach at 20 different online schools just for the money)... " Do you mean that only real experts teach synchronously and unreal experts teach asynchronously?

When you say, "With prepackaged classes offered through online classes, students do not learned much that is new and current from the experts either." didn't you have any online instructors that asked for more then what was in the syllabus?

Do you mind if I ask where you got your undergrad? Was it online or traditional? I think you got your masters at TUI (or was it Touro University International), right?

 

When I took online classes at Keller Grad School of Mgmt years ago, I had two (PhD) professors who were practitioners (one in HR, the other in info security), so the information imparted to us was current. And although those classes were asynchronous, communication was more frequent between the professors and the students and among the students themselves than in the other grad classes I took on campus from the same school -- so frequent and some so personal in fact that I felt my privacy was being invaded.

I think generalizations such as a few of the ones above that mock online courses speak more about people's ignorance rather than the state of what they purport to be knowledgeable about.

 

How common is this whole "grad student teaching the course" phenomena? I've taken a ton of classes from 5 different universities, and I have had a grand total of 1 taught by a grad student. It was a summer course, and the subject matter was not only her academic area of interest, but one she had professional and personal experience in before she started her PhD. I have no complaints.

Now, I have definitely seen grad students (and even occasionally undergrads) supervising the sections/recitations. However, those are mostly to go over the homework, and since they will be the one's grading the homework I am fine with that.

 

It's quite common at major research universities. However, not all B&M schools are major research universities. There are many different kinds of B&M schools; the research university is just one kind (although admittedly a prominent one).

At the other extreme, there are B&M liberal arts colleges that do not rely on grad students for teaching at all. They can't, simply because they don't enroll any graduate students.

 

I would like to correct a few things here. There 'NO' teaching in Online classes. Its all self-learning. You just answer a few assignment questions (most answers are found on sites like brainmass - each answer is about $3.00) and if there are, answer a couple multiple choice quizzes, and/or answer a few discussion questions (answers found again on brainmass). Thats it. Do this 10~12 times, you get a Graduate degree.
I would never take an online class from "online-only" schools.

 

To make blanket generalizations about such a large group of schools seems a little naive. How can you know that there is absolutely "NO teaching in online classes" anywhere, at any school in the world? You can't possibly have attended them all.

 

I think you have it backwards. When I took classes at a B&M school there was no teaching. The professor just stood there and talked (sometimes rambled). No "teaching" just saying the same thing he said year after year with little to no emotion. The test was a multiple choice that anyone could pass. So clearly this must be what all B&M classes are like :thinking:

 

Hi -

1. The concepts being bandied about like french whores in this thread are being horribly mangled by people putting too much faith into their own point of view. (Of course this is my opinion).

2. Teaching is the act of imparting knowledge that is retained by the student. It's a responsibility shared by the instructor and the school and there's a learning paradigm. If the school puts together a curriculum and standardizes its syllabus the school is setting the course for the classes without an instructor to set a standard. The instructors job then is to grade the work being passed in by the student.

3. It is entirely the student's responsibility to learn and retain the material regardless of brick and mortar or online modality and the modality determines the means by which an instructor has the ability to be hands on (or not). Teaching in an online sense can seem a bit cold and unfairly slanted towards student initiative, but it's really no different anywhere else until you get into the doctoral program of your choice.

I will challenge anyone to provide me a verifiable example of their being an undergraduate or a Masters student and getting frequent one-on-on teaching time with their professor of choice without being a research associate for that professor. It just doesn't happen. Once you get brought in as a doctoral student, it's again a different paradigm and yet another if you're an online doctoral student.. and yet another based on your school of choice.

In short, all of you instigators, grow up. (and if you want to bitch about your feeling like a non special snowflake in your program, tell your academic advisors)

ITJD

 

I think that you are unfairly singling out the French here. Oui? :wink:

 

Pick just about any music degree program at random. Locate the applied music courses in the annual class schedule. They are almost always offered with "one-on-on teaching time with their professor of choice without being a research associate for that professor."

 

.........:haha:

 

Are you familiar with the traditional Oxford or Cambridge tutorial system ?

It's true that the Oxbridge tutorial system would never be found at a US research university, but it's also true that it is used at small liberal arts colleges, which have much stronger teaching orientations. For example, Williams College (in Massachusetts) caps its undergraduate tutorials at an enrollment of two. That's admittedly unusual, but US liberal arts colleges routinely offer upper-level courses with enrollments of less than 10. This is small enough for most students to get as much personal professorial attention as they could want.

 

This is not to suggest that the Oxbridge model is practical for large US universities (whether they are B&M or DL). It may not be. However, the point is that alternative, more personal, models for undergraduate education do exist.

 

My undergrad alma mater was a liberal arts college. I had a Greek class with 5 students in it. The personal attention from the prof was incredible.

 

I'll give you that, but I think that a performance degree is not taught by those with research doctorates and is outside the scope of the discussion that provoked my reply.

 

Well played