University of California, Internet?

[Jamal]

UC Berkeley law school Dean Christopher Edley wants to offer online degree programs. Internet education has got to happen. It's just too expensive otherwise. In America you're looking at anywhere from $50,000 to $300,000 for a 4 year degree.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1EAQR0.DTL

[ootii]

UC Berkeley law school Dean Christopher Edley wants to offer online degree programs. Internet education has got to happen. It's just too expensive otherwise. In America you're looking at anywhere from $50,000 to $300,000 for a 4 year degree.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1EAQR0.DTL

Thanks for this article, Jamal.

The writer is a little misleading. UC Berkley would not be the first US university to offer fully online degree courses at undergraduate level - many such courses already exist, even within the UC system - rather it would be the first "tier one" institution to do so. US Berkley is the only state run university that is in this category, which also includes Yale, Harvard and MIT. Once tier one institutions begin go offer fully online degrees, we may assume universal recognition of online education IN THE UNITED STATES. We should also bear in mind that the US is already lagging behind many countries in online education.

The main concern over this seems to center on quality. Numerous studies indicate that the quality of online instruction is equal to or superior to that of onground courses, however, this is still contentious since we really are comparing apples and oranges. We should not be comparing dissimilar courses and teaching modalities, rather we should compare the competency of graduates - and this is an extremely difficult thing to do. Without clear empirical evidence to support online education as a "just as good" option, people will resort to polemics and entrenched positions, and education is notoriously conservative.

One thing did stand out in the article: "the university envisions spending less ... while increasing the number of tuition-paying students - helpful as state financial support drops."

Experience of others in the sector indicates that online is not a cheaper option - it is only different. As with any other type of education or training, effort to cut back on costs always have negative impact on quality of instruction. It is surprising to see that while UC Berkley are concerned about quality of online courses, they should simultaneously plan to spend less on them than on their onground offerings. This does not bode well for success.

Higher education is, however, due for a major shift. Since ancient times its primary function has been to maintain the economic and political privilege of social elites. That has severely eroded in the course of the past 50 years and the old liberal arts traditions are almost dead, even in the US. Online education may well transform this completely and we will emerge with something much more democratic: on demand training in virtually anything that does not stop when people are 23 or 24 but continues throughout their lives.

A century ago the American philosopher and educator, John Dewey, wrote extensively about the key role education plays in a democratic society. He is well known but his ideas have not been systematically applied. Hopefully, over the course of the next 50 years or so educators will become more serious about supporting democratic ideals.

Salaam,

Omar