An unusual new commercial service offers low-cost online courses and connects students to accredited colleges who will accept the courses for credit. The only thing missing: professors.
The service, called StraighterLine, is run by SmartThinking, a company that operates an online tutoring service used by about 300 colleges and universities. The online courses offered by StraighterLine are self-guided, and if students run into trouble they can summon a tutor from SmartThiking and talk with them via instant messaging. Students turn in their assignments or papers to tutors for grading as well.
“We’re using our tutoring service as the instructional component,” says Burck Smith, CEO of SmartThinking. “Students move through the course, and when they have a problem they click a button and they’re talking with a tutor.”
The courses cost $399 each, which includes 10 hours of time with a tutor. If students need more one-on-one help, they can pay extra for more tutoring.
The courses themselves were developed by McGraw-Hill, and StraighterLine uses Blackboard’s course-management service. So this virtual college is essentially cobbled together from various off-the-shelf learning services.
So far three colleges have agreed to grant credit for the StraighterLine courses — Fort Hays State University, Jones International University, and Potomac College.
The colleges see the partnership as a way to attract new students. “One of the things we hope to do is convert those students to Jones students,” says D. Terry Rawls, a vice chancellor at Jones International. “My expectation is that in reality students will take one maybe two courses with StraighterLine and then the students will take the rest of their courses with us.”
Richard Garrett, a senior analyst for Eduventures, sees the service as part of a broader trend of colleges granting credit for unconventional college experience, provided that the students can pass a test or otherwise demonstrate competency. And that raises the question, he says, “what is the core business of the academy versus what can be outsourced?”—Jeffrey R. Young
8 Responses to Who Needs a Professor When There’s a Tutor Available?
Via Response - February 1, 2012 at 9:14 am
Appreciate the personal and defining story of technology in your life. Internet technology, as you discuss here, needs to have a low learning curve and helpful in fulfilling a participation and communication need. Nice post.
Nicole Davis - February 1, 2012 at 3:27 pm
This is a great story, thanks for posting! My husband and I adopted our daughter at 4 days old - she’s now 5. We had all of a few hours notice that she was becoming a part of our lives, so technology was a major factor in our ability to announce her arrival to family and friends spread across the globe. technology has remained a big part of family communication, too!
v8573254 - February 1, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Cool. I loved reading about this.
I just shared this on a literacy Fb page as a prototype “Why I Believe . . . essay/reflection.” I think an interesting end-of- the- quarter/semester response, w/photo.
cpri2405 - February 3, 2012 at 10:45 am
Thank you for sharing this. I have enjoyed your other blog posts for their well-reasoned arguments for and against the use technology. Its nice to see that you can also make an argument from the heart.
bookdoctorplus - February 4, 2012 at 7:30 pm
This is a warm, heartfelt story about international adoption. I question the equation of technology with faith, however. To say one has consumate faith in technology implies only that the code is good, well written and the programming will hold up to complete the expected task within the expected timeframe.
Sorry. But technology is not faith. Faith transcends technology and when it works, it works without technology. My opinion. Also my opinion: Faith is what we choose to believe or come to believe through experience–being burned, being lied to, being maligned or missrepresented…counted, unfortunately, among those social “treatments.” Mostly that depends on humans, their natures and characters.
Robert Talbert - February 5, 2012 at 7:22 am
I’m not talking about faith here. I have that too, in other things, and it’s different. By “believe” I am talking about being convinced in the efficacy of something — this time based on hard evidence, which i listed,
jacksonlj - February 5, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Mr. Talbert, I really enjoyed your article and reflected on how I used technology to show my mom the world. Back in 2009 I took the opportunity to live and teach in South Korea. With my mothers blessing, I stepped out on a crazy journey for two years where I saw 12 different countries. Well my mom, with a felony could have never fathomed traveling to any of the places I’ve been to so far including the Great Wall, the Lourve, Sagardia Familia, and the Berlin Wall. If it was not for technology I would never shared my experiences with my mom or family. Thanks for the great, inspiring article.
Cheers,
JJ
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