Can digital education replace the traditional campus?
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Have you received a call, email or seen an ad of a school promoting their online programs? About four universities reached me and informed me about their MBA program that fits my schedule. Education has now boarded on the web.
Let’s say, you can get free courses in Harvard; which you could (Harvard Open Courses) but what about the traditional campus studentship? Is it okay for these professors to record one lecture and just play it to students? You may say that it’s good because now they can focus more on research. However, the internet is a lonely place.
I earned my undergraduate degree on campus. Benefits of college on campus are social and academic. Digital education took away the social part, where students don’t get the pressure of the presence of co-students. In campus, they get face-to-face experiences with people and situations that are relevant in life after school, isn’t it?
Online college saves time and can coalesce with your present life. Work in the morning, class before sleep. You can save money too. Apart from the fraction of tuition fee, all you need is an internet connection. No gas nor commute allowance. No canteen food. No need for looking good means less gel expenses for guys and makeup budget for girls.
Are your pro-digital or pro-campus?
Moment Matters 
Ahhh, most colleges charge the same for online courses as on campus if you are going for a degree.
For someone that is self motivated online classes can be wonderful. You still interact with your professor and other students in a virtual classroom. It isn’t just a recorded/written lecture, but it is on task so there is less wasted time. I think online education is especially viable for adults going for a second or continuing degree. I was able to work full time and take a full class load because I didn’t have to travel to class and had some flexibility to when I did my classes.
Online targeted education.
I like the idea of both online or on campus. Although, I believe you would learn more in a school setting with other people then at home with no other interaction. I think technology is taking over a lot of our social life and we need to jump back into reality with actual people we can talk to and learn from.
Who accredits online courses? Which occupations accept them? Do they leave you with credentials or just a useless educational loan? If you can answer these three questions truthfully (to yourself) then you know the answer.
I’m pro digital campus, with or without accreditation. We’re at the point where experience is becoming more valuable than a degree, at least in some areas. If you can get experience through online classes, accredited or not, and your career path is fine with that, I’d say go for it.
Schools, in general, have left a bad taste in my mouth. It costs an insane amount of money to be able to jump on their manufacturing belt. I think these expensive institutions will soon be a primitive way of the past, thanks to information being readily available to everybody on the internet for free. The structure is still young and it has great potential to grow into a natural flowing portal of group effort towards knowledge and skills. Anybody will be able to find their interest and join organized groups who share the same passions for free. It sounds crazy because most people think everything has to make dollars, but in actuality, it just needs to make sense for the benefit of our own growth. The cost and exclusive nature of accredited schools acts as a clog to the potential of the natural flow.
I am a self taught visual effects artist and 3D animator. The programs I have learned are extremely intricate, using formulas to mimic physics, geometry and light behavior. I have many friends who went to school to get into this industry. I envied them for awhile. Then they got out of school, buried in debt, and asked me what they should do next…
I find myself stuck in my usual mode of cynicism, around the use of “computers” in the world. They are the perfect spy machine, for those who know how to pry. I have used these machines since the 1980’s. Institutions had their own servers and campus machinery, back then. A huge room full of heat, and the technicians servicing them.
Knowledge is power. It is hardly surprising that now these monopolistic educational institutions are muscling into this, obviously, lucrative method. No building, no dorms, no canteens and minimal labour costs. Yet charge the “rubes” ….oops, that would be “students”. The same fees; for an education that is likely to leave them in as much debt after.
Having done several “online courses” in different subjects and educational offerings. They are not the same as being with a moderator, or teacher.
Meanwhile we see, more censorship and government intrusion. Into this thing called “the internet”. A perfect vehicle for spying. You may think it’s private?
Freedom? Like the U.S. military just happened to have this thing called, “world-wide-web”.Just lying around and in their usual benevolent manner? Gave it away to those institutions first; and “free”? …. cheers!
I am halfway though a BA in Creative Writing with a University, however, I am doing it all online as the only one who offers this course is in Perth. The backup from the University is terrible. We pay the same fees as the campus students but we don’t get tutorials or get to listen to them when they are given to the other students. We can’t interact with our fellow students. The tutors are slow to respond to queries and many students have complained that they don’t get answered at all. The lectures we get are audio only so when they play bits of movies in the lecture we don’t get to see them. Or when the students ask the tutor questions in the lectures we can’t hear them. We only hear the answer from the tutor. And this is reversed when the tutor asks the audience a question. I am really angry and disappointed about the whole experience. 🙂
I think its good that we have both so we can choose what works best for us at various stages, times and seasons of our lives.
tough one. Yes it’s expensive to go to a “real” university/college – but all the stuff I learned at college had almost nothing to do with the classroom. Then again – i’m very pro-tech. I’m all for a flatter world where everyone has access to learning. Tough one. Did I already say that?
What I also liked about online courses is that I can learn from MIT or Harvard professors even if I’m half the world away. But again, the social component of campus life draws me to traditional college.
I’m too old … for either *laughter ….
I think it depends on your purpose. As an adult who just loves to learn, things like Harvard Open Courses are amazing ways to sit in on classes I could never go to. And I’ve taken online courses for my continuing education credits that I need as a teacher. They’ve been convenient, and fulfill my requirements, yet I don’t think I’ve learned nearly all that I could from them. For an undergrad college degree, I think nothing beats the actual face to face interaction with a dedicated professor and the dialogue that arises among the students. You can’t get that on a message board. I’m noticing a scary trend toward online education even for elementary students, as well. These online schools are often unaccredited, with shaky track records, yet they take taxpayer money and count as a “school”. I think we need a balance.
I’ve tried both and I prefer classroom., but I can learn online if I have sufficient motiviation, it’s just harder.
Online teaching costs significantly less to provide than classroom teaching. The initial outlay is high, but once the course is written (which is usually already is having been taught in the classroom) then the course will just need uploading, hosting and occasional tinkering with.
The tinkering will be expensive in the first two years (if it’s a good, lasting course). Then it becomes cheap to provide, so it should be cheap to study. Many Universities are now offering their online courses for free, but you don’t receive a certificate at the end of it. Who needs a certificate? That’s just a societal convention which is relevant here today. Times will change, many will get left behind.
I doubt whether online experience can match that of a classroom. Its like playing a video game of soccer and actually going out in the field to play it.
Pro-campus