Online materials disrupting Universities
The recent announcement of Coursera Coursera has raised the question of the role of online teaching materials and whether the range of the universities we have currently will continue to exist. This is, of course, related to the question of the role of a university.
Any university that sees its role as providing only information transfer (similar to the Nuremberg Funnel) will not survive. After all the material on Coursera is likely to be superior than the material produced at such a university. A side question is how did this university survive in this mode.
Universities are about providing experience. That is the students needs to be part of the experience. While studying online material is an experience, university education is much more than that. Sociologists have talked about the cohort effect in education. At the moment online courses do not offer such experiences.
The second is the role of a university as a certifying entity. Universities make student jump through various hoops before they can get their degree. Potential employers (including postgraduate programs, academic recruitment at universities) rely on this process to decide who they wish to hire. Universities use selection processes to attract talented students who can then
be asked to jump through higher hoops. This ultimately leads to an increase in the reputation of a university. I do not see on-line teaching entities playing this role.
This is not to say that universities cannot use the material from online providers such as Coursera. Such material can add to the experience as well as the certifying process. But universities need to address these issues and not focus only on one-way information (or is it data?) transfer from lecturers to students.
As Daphne Koller
indicates watching passively is not education! This view is reiterated by UPenn's president "Right now I have zero confidence that we could replicate a Penn education online."
So no good university will be disrupted by the presence of such online materials.
Any university that sees its role as providing only information transfer (similar to the Nuremberg Funnel) will not survive. After all the material on Coursera is likely to be superior than the material produced at such a university. A side question is how did this university survive in this mode.
Universities are about providing experience. That is the students needs to be part of the experience. While studying online material is an experience, university education is much more than that. Sociologists have talked about the cohort effect in education. At the moment online courses do not offer such experiences.
The second is the role of a university as a certifying entity. Universities make student jump through various hoops before they can get their degree. Potential employers (including postgraduate programs, academic recruitment at universities) rely on this process to decide who they wish to hire. Universities use selection processes to attract talented students who can then
be asked to jump through higher hoops. This ultimately leads to an increase in the reputation of a university. I do not see on-line teaching entities playing this role.
This is not to say that universities cannot use the material from online providers such as Coursera. Such material can add to the experience as well as the certifying process. But universities need to address these issues and not focus only on one-way information (or is it data?) transfer from lecturers to students.
As Daphne Koller
indicates watching passively is not education! This view is reiterated by UPenn's president "Right now I have zero confidence that we could replicate a Penn education online."
So no good university will be disrupted by the presence of such online materials.
posted by PK at
4:29 PM
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