October 20, 2008
Unusual New Online University Will Rely on Volunteer Teachers
So far the new P2P University is no more than a quickly-put-together Web site and a dream, but its founders are trying to put some of their innovating ideas about open education to the test by creating a whole new model of online education.
A free article in today’s Chronicle describes the plans for the new university, set to start offering courses in February. One of its founders, Jan Philipp Schmidt, talked to Wired Campus TV via Webcam about the project as well.
Will traditional professors be willing to teach for this new online institution for free, as the founders hope they will to fulfill part of the service components of their jobs? Can such online courses help students even if the new university offers no credit on its own? —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Monday October 20, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: Shift in Payroll Will Affect Employee Retirement Packages
Next: Where Have All the Legal Downloading Services Gone?
The short answer is yes.
It’s just the next step in disruptive technology. The pornography industry, for example, has been extremely successful and profitable for many years, until a year ago or so, when a couple of online porn sites went totally free (no registration, no fee, completely free). Now the industry is reeling because there’s no money to be made when everything is free. Good riddance, some say.
A kinder example would be Open Office, which offers the functional equivalent of Microsoft Office, for free. For most people, buying Word or Excel is not only unnecessary against such open source alternatives, but actually stupid. The site docs.google.com is similarly canceling out the need for paid software.
The same thing could eventually happen to higher ed. Someone gives away medium-quality education, taught by acceptable faculty who have not yet made it in the old system but appreciate the fame of national exposure. No tuition, totally free, with comparable standards to accredited schools. The medium-quality free content drives out the high-quality paid content. It’s coming , as surely as online education will soon drive out overpriced brick-and-mortar higher education. Just because we haven’t reaching the tipping point yet doesn’t mean that it won’t ever arrive.
With the internet, no one can profit, because someone is always in the wings, eager enough to be successful that they’re willing to give it away, but never monetizing the content because another person in the wings is waiting to give away their content.
— fg Oct 20, 02:13 PM #
Information always follows this type of pattern. Secret -> For Sale -> For Free.
— Prof Smith Oct 20, 05:11 PM #
Prof Smith, if it were just about information, then I would agree. But there is also labor involved. I would be happy to teach for free, but I can’t eat for free, and I can’t rent an apartment for free. All high-minded ideals of self-sacrifice will never reduce my cost of living to $0. Therefore, I can’t give away my labor.
— Shar Oct 21, 01:12 AM #
Agreed, Shar. And then there’s the issue of quality and recognized peer review. Not every blogger is a journalist whose work I’m willing to read. I’d rather pay for an edited and peer-reviewed journal to help ensure the quality.
That said, there is still the issue of public service and many professions have a recognition for ‘pro bono’ work. This could be one of those cases.
MIT and others have recently begun making their syllabi available free as “Open Courseware”
<http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm> and I’m sure they don’t expect enrollment to drop as a result. These could well be complimentary services.
— Rob Oct 21, 07:45 AM #
Since when is higher education mainly about learning? It’s a credentialing system; learning is secondary. Some coursework is more like hazing than learning anyhow. Maybe continuing education units should be fearful. I think degree-granting units are largely safe, especially the more prestigious ones.
— Mark Oct 21, 09:38 AM #
What sort of “teacher” is Mr.Schmidt? His first job is to learn to speak ENGLISH – clearly and not mumble and chew or swallow half hits words.
— Deianira Oct 21, 10:21 AM #
I imagine when public universities came out academics said it would be the downfall of higher education as the cost would be significantly cheaper. Private and public higher education institutions continue to survive and thrive today. There will always be the Crème Brule crowd who will pay for education and the generic product crowd who will want it free.
— atm Oct 21, 10:21 AM #
Providing education on a ‘need to know basis,’ when and were people need/want it is truly open access. Where the rub comes in is when the learner needs to provide validation of their learned expertise, and that is where traditional education comes, and where open access does not fit well. The learner could attempt credit by examination, but if that is the case, why not just take the online course for university credit to begin with. It’s all about how the learner intends to use the knowledge gained: for self improvement, or for the external validation the learning could provide.
— bradocha Oct 21, 11:31 AM #
Information has been plentiful and free since the advent of the printing press and the public library.
Yet Americans do not flock to libraries to gain this free knowledge.
The real value of universities in today’s society isn’t that the contain or crank out information — we have way-way more of that than we need or care to absorb.
The real value of a university in a dispersed modern society is that it serves to “certify” or “verify” that information has led to knowledge (in theory).
For a free open university to have value in today’s society, people (employers) must see it as an agency that is qualified and dependable when it comes to certification of the process of taking information and turning it into knowledge.
I can tell everyone I read 10 textbooks on marketing and therefore am a marketing expert; they’ll not likely be impressed; but if I tell them I read the same 10 texts and received a masters in marketing from NYU they will give my “learning” a great deal of credence and respect.
Lots of information out there. Lots of free information.
Will anyone resepect learning from a free open university? Rather, will they respect it anymore than they do all the rich informal learning that already occurs everyday outside brick and mortar institutional walls?
For a free education to have value it has to be seen as coming from a credible source.
The task: can a free university position itself as a credible certification source?
Vicky Phillips
GetEducated.com
— Vicky Phillips Oct 21, 03:49 PM #
I think this is a noble idea but not achieveable in todays world. We strive to make ourselves better than our competitors. To find the edge that will help us get that job. As an employer why would you hire someone with an unverified degree vs a person coming from an accredited university? Also i believe offering free education would be useful in developing nations where there is a need for basic literacy an education. This idea, unfortunately, will not challenge the traditional brick n mortar and the rising online education industry.
— Raj Nov 7, 10:42 AM #