MIT Undermines DL/NA Degrees

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Kalos, Jun 19, 2006.

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  1. Kalos

    Kalos member

    Or it could degrade the credibility of RA institutions to NA levels.

    Why ? It's the lemming syndrome...

    MIT has thrown down the gauntlet. MIT's Open Courseware initiative is seriously subversive, but the move is so devious the NA schools (and lesser RA-DL schools) haven't noticed yet.

    MIT has essentially opened up its courses to public consumption free of charge. Essentially, MIT has said: "Here is everything you pay NA schools for, and more, but we give it to you FREE, because the value of real education is not the information that can be distributed by print or transmission. The value of an MIT education is what happens in our classrooms, between professor and student".

    Diabolical...
     
  2. Felipe C. Abala

    Felipe C. Abala New Member

    I'm interested to know if a degree/diploma/certificate can be awarded (by MIT or whatever legit school) via the OCW. Worst, (may be), I'm wondering if Ican tell a prospective employer that "Hhmmm... I read and master the MIT OCW", when applying for a job, which requires a degree/diploma/certificate.

    Just a thought...

    cheers
     
  3. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    It's true that a lot of "quality time" can be had in the classroom, but conversely, there can be as much or even more useless time. Younger students propably need classroom time as a form of disciplin, without which they would not learn anything.
    • My undergraduate studies were traditional and were useless, though I'm grateful to have received the degree.
    • My Masters was semi-traditional. While it was "in classroom," every student was a sworn officer, so it added a very unique spin to the academic discussions that occured in the classroom. It was the most richly rewarding academic experience I have ever had, but it was a rare program.
    • My studies at NCU are 100% DL and, frankly, I'm surprised at how much I've learned. It is richly rewarding because I control what I learn -- and at what speed.
     
  4. Kalos

    Kalos member

    Re: Re: MIT Undermines DL/NA Degrees


    By "classroom", I mean everything about a B&M school - the classrooms, labs, face time with your profs, residence dorms, food fights, garlic-breathed TAs, ogling co-eds. It all adds to the transformational experience. Completely missed by DETC students.

    Seems to me that's not a sound educational strategy. You shouldn't be controlling what you learn. We "students" are not in a position to know what we should have learned, until years later.
     
  5. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I wish it were that exciting, but as I explain below, OCW is aimed at instructors, not students.

    MIT's OCW, like too many open educational resources, is meant for instructors, not students. The purpose is to make things easier for an already knowledgeable instructor to teach a course on a particular subject, not for a student to use it by itself to learn things. In fact, what they release is usually just syllabi and lecture notes, a commercial textbook is still required and that's where all the information is. One might as well just buy a textbook and read it.

    Besides, would a prospective employer know what you were talking about? Actually, might be in your interest if he didn't....

    -=Steve=-
     
  6. eric.brown

    eric.brown New Member

    Re: Re: Re: MIT Undermines DL/NA Degrees

    After a person receives their Bachelors degree, I feel that they have every right to "control what they learn". Why should a person be forced to take a course that they have absolutely no interest in?

    How many people would take a Master's program if they had to re-take all the "general ed" requirements that they had to take in their BS program? Very few I bet.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 19, 2006
  7. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Re: Re: Re: MIT Undermines DL/NA Degrees

    I completely missed all of that because I had to work part-time and full-time jobs throughout my undergraduate studies. However, I don't feel "cheated."
    A syllabus sets the parameter. However, I honestly believe that you "just don't get it" and probably never will. Have you ever been richly rewarded by studying on your own time and by the learning curve that results?
     
  8. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    MIT might offer the curriculum free-of-charge, but if a student completes it, then will MIT also offer a grade to go with it? Or even better, how about a degree? And if not, then what is the incentive to complete the curriculum? ;)

    People attend college not just to learn, but also to obtain a sheepskin.
     
  9. Felipe C. Abala

    Felipe C. Abala New Member

    Re: Re: MIT Undermines DL/NA Degrees


    Which is also implied on its FAQ section...

    Right actually. That's why, the opinion of some posters that an NA DL education (which can award a degree/qualification) is inferior (or useless) is not always true, at least in situations like applying for a job where a degree is required. And the claim (as far as I understood the message) that
    , which is the reason for MIT to have their courses made available free to all (via OCW), is also not absolute and is quite arguable.

    That's in my opinion too.
     
  10. little fauss

    little fauss New Member

    Re: Re: Re: MIT Undermines DL/NA Degrees

    I agree with you on many points vis-a-vis the differences between DL and on-ground education.

    But...I'm not sure that the transforming experience of "ogling coeds", "food fights", and "residence dorms" (with the foul smells, bacchanals, and drunked members of the opposite sex stumbling into your dorm's communal bathroom while you're clad in nothing but an embarrassed grimace) produces that wonderful a transformation. Just because an experience transforms, it does not follow ipso facto that the transformation is beneficial to the long-term career prospects or intellectual development of a student. I imagine there are many modes of education that could produce far more success than our current on-ground B&M model.

    For example, some of the greatest thinkers and world-shakers in history studied through a mentorship system sans formal education. I can think of Benjamin Franklin, the Apostle Paul, Mark Twain, Plato and Abraham Lincoln off the top of my head. They totally missed out on many aspects of that transformational experience you described above. Two of those luminaries were trained as commercial printers while tenderly young, so maybe we should be apprenticing our children to the local print shop at age 13 if we want them to learn to write like a dream and think like a Renaissance man rather than sending them to the drunken orgies we call undergraduate schools. Just a thought.

    For my money, I'd take a DETC or RA DL guy studying part time while working in industry and learning the ropes of their craft over a kid with a party boy attitude--complements of that "tranformational experience"--and a prestigious degree any day. Just a thought.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 19, 2006

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