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.
-- Inyuki, Apr 24 2012

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]

The last paragraph - it seems to be in the wrong language.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 24 2012


Ok. Tried to correct it. :)
-- Inyuki, Apr 24 2012


Hmm. Still not sure I follow.

Are you saying that this could be funded by employers who want their employees to learn new stuff?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 24 2012


[MaxwellBuchanan], employers providing funding to employees to learn stuff is just one of the range possibilities. Others include:

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.)

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.)
-- Inyuki, Apr 24 2012


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.

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.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 24 2012


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.
-- nineteenthly, Apr 24 2012


I'm with you on that, [19thly].

But still, there may be niche for an education which is a bit like (but, I would suggest, inferior to) an OU degree.

You still need some sort of examination at the end to make it worthwhile; and a multiple choice quiz will not cut it.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 24 2012


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.
-- nineteenthly, Apr 24 2012


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.
-- UnaBubba, Apr 26 2012


[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.

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.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 26 2012


// You still need some sort of examination at the end to make it worthwhile //

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.

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").
-- Inyuki, Apr 28 2012


//You don't get the chance to ask a buddy if they understood X//

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?
-- pertinax, Apr 28 2012


I had a similar idea with my Television University (TVU) concept, which could be easily adapted to a series of online courses.

My idea was to pay for the education by including paid commercial advertising in the courses, just like commercial TV programs.

By using computers and the Internet, coursework could be graded by computer, and final exams could be held at proctored venues (for a fee).

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.

Traditionally, watching TV makes people stupid. Hopefully, watching TVU would make them smarter.
-- whlanteigne, Apr 12 2013


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.
-- whlanteigne, Apr 13 2013


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.

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.
-- travbm, Nov 05 2015



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