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Excellent courses are readily available online, but the
viewership remains relatively low, despite the quality of
the on-line courses far exceeding the quality of courses
in
most of universities. (What a waste of time to study
crap!)
1. A system providing funding for people who want to
take
on-line courses.
2. A system including the free on-line courses in
curriculums of universities.
The provision of funding to study courses would probably
have to be grounded on the pursuit of greater supply
of skilled experts, and acquisition of expertise desired by
the funding parties and the learning parties respectively.
Coursera
http://coursera.org
Courses with quantied evalutions. [Inyuki, Apr 24 2012]
YouTube - Stanford
http://www.youtube....rsity/videos?view=1
Public Stanford University courses [Inyuki, Apr 24 2012]
[link]
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The last paragraph - it seems to be in the wrong
language. |
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Ok. Tried to correct it. :) |
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Hmm. Still not sure I follow. |
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Are you saying that this could be funded by
employers who want their employees to learn new
stuff? |
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[MaxwellBuchanan], employers providing funding to
employees to learn stuff is just one of the range
possibilities. Others include: |
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1) Just like public universities are funded by
governments, individual study programs consisting of sets
of publicly available free courses could be funded by
governments. (The funding could be related with
performance, as it is in case of scholarships, but the
relationship could be tighter: e.g., decisions about
funding, and the level of funding would not be done once
in a semester, but, for instance, once a week, and done
automatically, depending on the performance.) |
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2) The funds could be set up by a set of companies, which
are part of an association with certain goals (shared
among companies), which need expertise. (Remember, X-
Prize Foundation formed by a set of companies, and
governmental input.) |
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I like the idea of some sort of (optional)
formalisation of online study. I recently
discovered the MIT online courses, which are
great. I started following some, but without a
formal structure or the prospect of an exam, I
didn't stick with it. |
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On the other hand, if you go in this direction you
are basically re-inventing the Open University,
which offers degree courses by remote learning
(with some tutorial and hands-on work) and is
quite highly respected. |
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Self-motivation would seem to be a problem for many. Another
is the question of where the value of a university education lies.
It may be my age, but on closely examining a variety of courses
and listening to students, my impression is that the value of the
explicit course materials is now rather over-emphasised to the
detriment of other reasons for going to university such as the
old boys' network (which is a good thing), learning to live
independently and being part of intensely focussed intellectual
interaction with a common aim, which to me suggests lots of
staff and fewer students. So in other words, if it's not Oxbridge
or Ivy League, you should probably just forget it. |
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I'm with you on that, [19thly]. |
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But still, there may be niche for an education which
is a bit like (but, I would suggest, inferior to) an OU
degree. |
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You still need some sort of examination at the end
to make it worthwhile; and a multiple choice quiz
will not cut it. |
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Yes, there is a benefit and it would also be good for people
actually to be capable of doing something rather than merely
being qualified to do it, which this would stand a good chance of
facilitating. |
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Online is probably better than the usual chalk-n-talk
courses, where passing seems to involve
demonstrating you can think inside the tiny box
occupied by the stunted mind of the relevant (or
otherwise) lecturer/s. |
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[Ubie] I disagree. Yours is a very jaded view of
university education which might well apply in
many universities, but doesn't apply in all.
Perhaps you speak from experience, and perhaps
I've been lucky. I can only remember one
outstandingly bad lecturer, out of probably 30 or
50 who taught. |
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Online teaching has advantages, but it also has
disadvantages. You don't get the chance to ask
the lecturer questions. You don't get the chance
to ask a buddy if they understood X. |
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// You still need some sort of examination at the end to make it worthwhile // |
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Not really. The amount of information that is retained in human memory, generally follows forgetting curve. Spaced repetition allows one to make sure (with a desired confidence level) that a person will be able to remember the learned information at some point of time T upon demand. |
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That is achieved through systematic repetition rather than one exam at the end. I didn't see anyone employ (incorporate) spaced repetition system within the free on-line courses, but I made this suggestion to one course provider, because this would also allow one to study sporadically (like in case of "incremental reading"). |
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//You don't get the chance to ask a buddy if they understood X// |
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You can fairly quickly discover whether *you* understood X; just post an idea here based on your possible understanding of it, and see whether that idea gets blown to pieces. Isn't that what some of our fellows here actually do from time to time? |
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I had a similar idea with my Television University
(TVU) concept, which could be easily adapted to a
series of online courses. |
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My idea was to pay for the education by including
paid commercial advertising in the courses, just
like commercial TV programs. |
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By using computers and the Internet, coursework
could be graded by computer, and final exams
could be held at proctored venues (for a fee). |
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The difficult part would be getting the courses
and the degrees accredited, but I think it would
be easier today than it would have been 20 years
ago. |
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Traditionally, watching TV makes people stupid.
Hopefully, watching TVU would make them
smarter. |
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One of the exciting possibilities about online learning
is the use of online forums, like Facebook or HB, to
discuss lessons peer-to-peer and student-to-
instructor, and to form study groups. |
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KET has had many programs that you can watch and take materials for getting your GED. It was a great idea. But it never took off. Bob Ross in the Joy of painting is the closest thing we have now. And maybe red green. But nova and nature and Downton Abby are nice. |
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It is a good idea to use digital television for GED programs so students can take courses and watch programs to help in learning , math and grammar and things. |
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