It’s the first day of school and my alarm goes off at 8
a.m. I roll out of bed and moan as I prepare for another year of
school. I skip taking a shower and brushing my teeth because
I’ve got class in 15 minutes.
I don’t even bother to get dressed up. Last year, I would
have been worried about being late for class, but last week I
signed on to get DSL. With my new high-speed dial up, I might even
have time to check my e-mail before class. Confused yet?
I’m talking about the recent trend in online education,
and more specifically, the number of universities and students that
have fixated themselves on the idea of Internet-based colleges. But
why are people so fascinated with trying to transform the
traditional notions of college campuses into
“college.com?” The bottom lines are simply money and
accessibility.
The proponents of online colleges claim that they make higher
education more accessible to the community. According to Newsweek
(April 16), 79 percent of adults in the United States lack college
diplomas. With the proper publicity, the result of online colleges
could result in millions of busy adults getting the chance to hear
their name called on graduation day ““ except at UCLA, of
course, where the school is already too impersonal to ever call
your name.
But if the school we are at now is impersonal, what would an
online graduation ceremony be like? I can see it now: We would all
log on at 7 p.m. and a Web cam would be set up in a small office,
where distinguished faculty and guest speakers would be broadcast
to those people with the proper login. You would get your login
number when you purchase your souvenir tassel and diploma frame. No
need for a cap and gown anymore. A pre-recorded Mp3 by the UCLA
synthesized band would blast through your computer’s
speakers, and our valedictorian would instant message us his
commencement speech. We would have some cheesy flash graphics of
fireworks across our screen and, suddenly, we would be college
graduates.
It may sound like a joke, but for as many upsides as there are
to online education, there are equally as many downs. Yes, it
provides opportunities for people who might not have been able to
attend college. People who work full-time jobs can now logon to
classes at schools as prestigious as Duke, Columbia and Stanford
and work hard for a degree. But is an online degree any different
from the degree of someone who actually walked to and from class
every day for four years? Not according to the actual diploma.
I’ve always thought that a college degree meant something.
It meant that you had put in your time; you made a down payment on
an education for your future. You take a hit now, and make up for
it later. When I hear about how amazing it is that colleges are
beginning to go online, I can’t help but imagine a world
where a college degree doesn’t mean anything. It’s hard
enough now with so many people going on to post-graduate studies.
This country has to stop lowering the bar just to make things
easier; easier is not always better.
The Newsweek article describes various online classes in
interesting ways. It goes on to talk about the lecture outline that
is posted on the Web, the e-mail office hours with the professor,
the chat room case studies that students must do together and the
books on CD-ROM. It even talks about the homework, which leaves
quite a bit to be desired when it comes to difficulty (one example:
“Write a one-screen summary in which you discuss what you
learned during this workshop.”).
As if it wasn’t easy enough for people to get someone to
do their homework for them already. All I have to do now is give a
friend of mine my password. He can take the class for me. Sure, I
may lose out in the long run, but at least I will have a
degree.
The ultimate question when it comes to online colleges, though,
is do we really need them? University of York Professor David
Noble, the most prominent critic of online universities, stated,
“Students don’t want this stuff.” In fact, a lot
of the hype around “e-learning” is spun from cyber
educators who hope to get rich in the process. Online courses
constitute only $350 million of the $240 billion higher education
industry, but according to Merrill Lynch, online courses will grow
to $2 billion by 2003.
Needless to say, venture capitalists have already poured
millions into the sector funding several online colleges such as
Unext.com. Do we really need to lower our educational standards so
a few more suits can get rich?
Other critics actually worry if online education could endanger
a few brick and mortar schools. In the Newsweek article,
Columbia’s Arthur Levine asked, “What happens when
California looks around and says, “˜Do we really need nine
public research universities?'” I’ll tell you
what happens, it’s good-bye UC Davis, good-bye UC Riverside,
good-bye, etc. Once these schools are gone, students who would have
gone there will either have to settle for second tier schools or
worse yet, they might opt for an online degree. Suddenly, someone
who stood the chance to get a half decent education was just
robbed.
Besides the rich man’s attempts to get richer, I wonder if
a college education means anything without the college experience?
Everything I’ve every heard from everyone who ever went to
college was that half of everything they learned while at college
came from those moments outside of the classroom. But then again
why would anyone ever really need to learn how to interact with
professors or students person to person? Why would they ever feel
the need to ask an immediate follow up question to something they
didn’t quite understand in lecture? We obviously don’t
need that.
Why don’t we get rid of it all ““ the professors, the
buildings, all of it? Just think, it would be so much easier. We
would never have to worry about being hassled on Bruin Walk
(instead, banners would just flash across your screen from Jews for
Jesus and Bible Jed). We wouldn’t have to deal with the
cramped seating in Public Policy, or the ridiculous walk to
Dickson. It would be great on both sides. Instead of professors
having to listen to the incessant tearing of Daily Bruins every
day, we could simply open up the crossword puzzle in a different
window when we were logged on for our lecture hours. I could go to
college without ever leaving my room. It would be so great. That is
what my ideal online college would be like.
But then again if online colleges really did spread, the average
student population would probably get so dumb they wouldn’t
grasp the sarcasm of this last paragraph.