| + Share page with friends! |
|---|
How do Universities compete with e-Learning?
I was thinking of going for a second Masters degree after having worked four-years in Industry. This got me thinking about why do universities make it so difficult for students to get admission and once admitted why do they make life even more difficult, even though you are the customer! I suppose students had no choice before, but now with low-cost e-learning, why should any student have to go through all that non-value added effort just to gain an education?
How do universities justify their tuition rates, demanding course-work and competitive admission policies when most of what they offer is available for self-study on the Internet?
E-learning is just getting better and better with more interactive multi-media enhanced modules. The online collaborations tools are great. Only thing missing is actual hands-on learning.
So what is it about universities that keep them alive? Don't we live in a free market economy where non-value added products just filter out? Isn't education the bottom line? So whatever medium can provide that at least cost should always win out, no?
Of course people attend universities for the networking, socializing, etc, but these are secondary to what they really want, i.e. an education. If learning shifts to online methods, people will find new ways to network and socialize.
What do you think? What am I missing about what universities provide that e-learning can not? Or am I missing the whole point behind what Universities provide? Do you see any shift in education in the future?
The fact is anyone can obtain knowledge rather inexpensively via. e-learning, textbooks or other self-study means. But it takes expensive resources, to create knowledge for us to study!
So I guess universities priority is to create knowledge, not teach it. Of course the most presitgous universities will always attract the best faculty, students and research funding, hence, assuring a healthy supply of "new" knowledge. That is why they can be so picky and difficult as creating new knowledge is where the challenge is, not teaching it.