There is incredible diversity within our higher-education system. I have personally witnessed a class taught by a full professor to two (2!) undergraduates at a wealthy liberal-arts college and read senior theses produced in close collaboration with full-time research faculty that would put most graduate work to shame. Online higher education can’t touch that. But I’ve also seen—and participated in—big lecture classes that are worse than well-designed online courses. The difference between what higher learning should be in theory and what it really is in practice (and what’s feasible given the current economic and funding environment) is vast. And it’s in that space that new organizations are going to thrive.
Kevin Carey via http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/freemium-higher-education/45333
Thanks for posting this Scott. Degrees have become a ticket in the door, but knowledge is the key. The students effort is an important component in any setting. A student who comes to class, never reads a book, and hands in a few papers to pass a course gains little. When I was a sitting administrator I was much more interested in the depth of pedagogical knowledge than GPA or the name of the University they graduated from. Often in interviews I met people who could recite acronyms or a few of the “hot” terms, but knew little about teaching or why they should use different strategies.