Thank you for your response, I see that you are familiar w/ openCourseWare as a concept, but have you logged into any of the systems and looked at a course or 2? Interaction between the professor and online consumer is nonexistent. Lectures are usually shot by a TA, or possibly a cam on a tripod, then uploaded / labeled / and forgotten. This is Fine. Teachers work very hard, whether they're HS teachers staying up late grading papers, or Professors burning the midnight oil trying to make these incredibly complex concepts palatable for their students in tomorrow's lecture. Users who use the openCourseWare programs, use them to learn simply because they want / need to for 1 reason or another. They do not expect to interact or have their hand held by professors of said courses. Let alone expect any tests to be graded or critiqued. But at this point, no credit or academic acknowledgement of the successful online/passive/self learner is attainable in any way. I simply suggest a possibility of creating an opportunity for the general edu society to provide a possible testing standard to accompany the technology that already exists. Revenue generated by these tests, would again, be paid out to the providers (you) themselves. Pretty much, you'd record the class your already teaching, and create a possible extra revenue stream w/out participating any more than uploading and labeling your own course syllabus. Lot's of different professors uploading the same courses, the testing standard can include a referral system for testers to provide the OCW professors they have viewed in order to feel confident enough to spend $ to test out of the course. If multiple referrals are provided, revenue can be split between all listed.
For example, now if you would like to learn web development. You can go online, learn let's say php. Program a few sites, ask and respond to questions in forums (debugging other people's code while you yourself are waiting on an answer to your ? can help you learn different scenarios faster), then study the php maintainers' guide for their certification exam. Said exam will cost a pretty penny (sliding scale), so students will make sure that they fully grasp the material before they spend their own hard earned $ from working jobs at Carls Jr / Dominos pizza on a $200 - $500 test that they may end up failing. That specific part; "Many professors simply would like to teach as many people as possible", refers directly toward those professors who already provide OCW content. Allow me to pose this question. Would you like to see an America that was not so far behind academically in regard to the rest of the world? I'm confident that you, being an elite UCSC educator, would reply Yes to a question framed that way. In that case, wouldn't it be beneficial for the education community as a whole to embrace the system w/ that extra step of student incentive (course or vocation credit) to view all the lecture and course material that is already available. Since if they can and do grasp the material, that allows a disabled / financially challenged / or student w/ extenuating family circumstances to not only learn law / physics / psychology, but they would also have the ability to apply that to their CV. Thank you for your comments on this issue, Matt On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 1:35 PM, abram stern (aphid) <[email protected]> wrote: > Quick rant re: "Many professors simply would like to teach as many people > as possible". I have no interest in teaching "as many students as > possible", well.. let me rephrase. What's possible for me is about 24. > After that I can't remember their names, the projects they're working on, > their previous work, their strengths and their weaknesses. And if I don't > know those things, I can't speak to them as peers or provide guidance > worth-a-shit on their projects. Some things just don't scale. > > Can MOOCs replace large lecture classes? ...maybe. Although I know a lot > of young phds starting out in academia who are terrified that their > curriculum now has to compete with some elder MIT professor's video > channel. Like local radio DJs about to get displaced when Clearchannel > comes to town. > > -a > > > On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 10:43 AM, Matt L <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Consider OpenCourseWare credit: >> >> A portal to search for courses from many of these OpenCourseWare >> providers is: >> >> http://www.ocwconsortium.org >> >> Many universities provide free education online to much of their >> syllabus. Few examples: >> >> http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm, http://see.stanford.edu/, >> http://ocw.nd.edu/ >> >> >> Ability to test out at low cost if candidate qualifies as eligible; or >> unable to attend college , private or otherwise via disability, financial, >> family, or many other situations where Americans would not be able to >> afford or schedule traditional college. >> >> >> Incentive for students (obvious and many) >> >> >> Incentive for teachers: >> >> - >> >> Many professors simply would like to teach as many people as >> possible. This is evident due to the amount of OpenCourseWare available >> already today. Also, Mr. Lessig, Aaron's Swartz' legal advisor and friend >> mentioned as much in an interview with Chris Hayes. >> - >> >> JSTOR: the archive in Mr. Swartz's case, recently opened their >> archive with little to no objection from professors or universities. >> http://about.jstor.org/individuals >> - >> >> Any profit earned by the "low cost", listed above, would be paid 100% >> to the producers of the content aka Teachers. >> >> >> Cost mitigation: >> >> - >> >> Large files, such as lecture videos should embrace tried and true >> peer to peer tech like bittorrent protocols. >> - >> >> Regardless of controversy surrounding the protocol, it is an >> effective way to host very large files for very little bandwidth cost, as >> well as in many cases serve your students faster. >> - >> >> Universities/Corporations can host bittorrent "trackers" that do not >> allow submissions from anyone but authorized users or providers. >> - >> >> That way all files, and intellectual property responsibilities would >> be attached to the owners of the files. And moderators would only have to >> filter those authorized providers. >> >> >> Problems: >> >> - >> >> Some universities, and many community colleges profit will be >> affected negatively by such a project. But those universities have >> programs >> like the NCAA, and are/will be an aspiration for most of our successful >> students regardless of this alternative option. Those students, physically >> attending will have the advantage of hands-on labs in facilities they >> otherwise would never have access to as an online student. >> >> >> Other Points: >> >> - >> >> There many commercials on tv for paid college programs where students >> can earn degrees. These programs can't be better than our Finest >> Universities? >> - >> >> Online may be argued as inferior, I wouldn't know, I would be >> interested in a hearing and study regarding efficacy of this type of >> program. But if this type of program would be regarded as inferior, >> degrees >> could reflect the type of education that the (now professionals) have >> received. But I don't see how this would not be considered discrimination >> as long as all students had to take the same tests, in the same type of >> environment. For example, a student studies a topic online, when they and >> the software feel the student is proficient, that student would then >> schedule a test at a local testing center. (Corp? College?) >> >> >> What is needed: >> >> - >> >> Long Term >> >> >> - >> >> Bandwidth...it's that simple. If the government would provide funds >> for cloud services where needed, the benefits, considering US youth and >> society at large, would be exponential over the generations. The Beauty of >> cloud services is that if your system is not being used by the public, it >> costs Nothing. Code maintenance should be eligible for certain grants >> based >> on successful results, but at the same time, all should embrace the open >> source community (I.E. support and upgrades for a possibly standard CMS to >> be shared among the different providers). These costs can run from minimal >> all the way to free, it just depends on how much traffic these programs >> receive. If they're deployed in a clever way, each university could be >> mirrored by all the rest. In the case that school A is just about at it's >> max bandwidth limit; that would trigger a script to search the other >> mirrors for available bandwidth. It's possible, if done correctly, that a >> program like this could be inexpensive Even if popular. >> >> >> >> Notes on Obama's speech on Student loans this morning 5/31/2013: >> >> Average student loan: $26,000 >> >> Obama's student loans cost more than his mortgage. While he was still >> paying student loans, he was saving for children's college, yet financially >> better off than most Americans. >> >> “Every young person should be able to access higher education” is an >> aspiration of our President since he was a Senator, running for the White >> House. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss > >
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