"Why your college could go belly up"

Why your college could go belly up - - MSN Money

 

I love the last line in the article: "Why would someone pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend Nowhere State University when he or she can attend an online version of MIT or Harvard practically for free?"

LOL Should we chase that rabbit down the hole? Is HES really Harvard?

I think that it will take a lot longer to disassemble the current structure...not because the technology doesn't exist or is inferior....but because of public perception. The article states: "Harden also predicts that as online education becomes more widespread, a college-level education will soon be free (or cost just a minimal amount) for everyone in the world, and that the bachelor's degree will become irrelevant." Access to college doesn't equate with completion, look at the drop out rates across the country and throughout various demographics, we have a very accessible system, yet far less than half the population holds a Bachelors in anything (as memory serves I want to say around 35% but don't clearly recall). Just because we make it cheap and put it online doesn't destroy the value of holding the paper...it will take a collective shift to some other mechanism to cause this and the author doesn't identify that new paradigm.

Things are changing...a bumpy ride for some is certain...but there has been a need for market correction for some time. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

 

:tongue:

And not even that! "Practically for free," they're talking about MOOC or MOOC-like courseware with some content put up, but little or no teaching or assessment by active human faculty. And this is really more a "version of the public library" than a "version of MIT or Harvard."

I have heard of peer-graded assignments in some MOOCs, but basically all I've heard are complaints. "Your work will be graded, by some random people from the Internet:" Not the greatest selling proposition.

 

I'm not buying this, I think college will possibly get cheaper, but will colleges just start "going under" in droves, I'm not buying that. I'll be interested in what other people think, maybe I'm wrong. With all these online "free" programs you don't actually get a diploma, right? I don't see how you could take that to an employer for a job.

 

Schools go out of business all the time. Most colleges and universities are tuition-based and are very subject to market forces.

The big online offerers do not yet confer degrees--maybe they never will. But what if they sought instead to become an alternative pathway for people to prepare for the workforce outside the degree-granting process. And what if it catches on? These schools could set up online training programs for a variety of fields that now require--usually for no good reason--a college degree, when all they really need are new employees with entry-level vocational skills.

Another possibility is second-, third-, and fourth-tier schools leveraging this content into their degree programs. You take an online course created and delivered by MIT, say, but take the examination (or other demonstration of mastery) from your school, who then awards credits and degrees.

Lots and lots of interesting possibilities that don't involve these schools actually awarding degrees and credits themselves. We'll see.

 

I understood, just found it funny in thinking back on the discussions held on the board here. I'm not convinced educators could write about this any better than the journalists...everyone approaches this with their own preconceived thoughts, as an educator I would be very concerned about how such a thing might affect me...little stuff like what the heck I would do for a living now.

 

I think many forum regulars have seen a lot of discussion both here and elsewhere about the notion of a higher education "bubble"-- that higher education can/has hit a ridiculously high price point, and will become quickly devalued thus dropping in price.

I don't know that you'll necessarily see colleges closing "in droves", but you will see lots of changes over the next 5-10 years and the higher education landscape will look somewhat different than it does today-- strikingly so. I just don't think the American public will continue to buy into the idea of paying for an overpriced education system with fairly high operating costs.

 

The article is a low quality regurgitation of the article in ‘American Interests’ as stated – click on ‘American Interests’ link to read the original. It was my original understanding that the following quote really sums up one of the original reasons for MOOCs.

“One potential source of cost savings for lower-rung colleges would be to draw from open-source courses offered by elite universities. Community colleges, for instance, could effectively outsource many of their courses via MOOCs, becoming, in effect, partial downstream aggregators of others’ creations, more or less like newspapers have used wire services to make up for a decline in the number of reporters. They could then serve more students with fewer faculty, saving money for themselves and students. At a time when many public universities are facing stiff budget cuts and families are struggling to pay for their kids’ educations, open-source online education looks like a promising way to reduce costs and increase the quality of instruction.”

MOOCs can provide access to quality education content to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier colleges/universities around the world with credit awarded by the local college/university.