Interesting Article on LinkedIn about the Online Course Revolution

[FuschiaFleur]

I came across this article today and thought it would be interesting to share with you all. No groundbreaking information here, but it's becoming clear that the notion of "traditional education" is shifting. But all of you "Big 3'ers" already knew that.

Five Ways Free Online Classes Will Change College, or Not | LinkedIn

This part stood out to me...

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Rather than enroll in that pricey professional certificate program at the college down the street, you’ll take a few MOOCs and pay for a verified certificate at the end of each course for a few hundred bucks. Eventually, MOOCs will put bundle together a few courses into a curriculum that will lead to a certificate equal to what colleges are now charging thousands of dolars for.

What MOOCs won’t do: Replace the bachelor’s degree. A degree is more than simply a collection of 120 credits. A structured undergraduate curriculum from an institution still matters, at least until someone else figures out how to copy that for a much lower price.

There are already websites that allow you to take online courses for free and earn a certificate (alison.com), but they usually aren't recognized/viewed as legitimate. It would be nice to have more "respected" options for free learning. Maybe Saylor will move in this direction?

I disagree with the second paragraph. While I value education and enjoy learning, I have learned much more from real-life experience than I ever did in a classroom (to me a bachelor's degree is just 120 credits for many industries nowadays and just a milestone that shows you completed a difficult, complex task) Even as a college freshman, I quickly found out that attending lecture (at least for me) was a waste of time. I followed the syllabus, studied my notes/textbook, quizzed myself, returned to class for tests and exams, and aced the course. Most of the members here will/have test out of 90%+ of our coursework in order to earn degrees, yet we still require a tremendous amount of structure. I even find that because I set the parameters for learning and studying, I retain much more information. Actually much of what I am studying is more meaningful because I have the professional experience that puts everything into perspective.

Thank goodness for the Big 3 (and other similar institutions) that recognize that the old, one size fits all model of higher education isn't applicable for everyone. I believe that if one successfully demonstrates through exam or written essay that he or she has mastered the concepts/requirements for a course, then it's wholly unnecessary to spend 8-16 weeks inside of a classroom.