Interesting article on future of colleges

[ideal]

"A brash tech entrepreneur thinks he can reinvent higher education by stripping it down to its essence, eliminating lectures and tenure along with football games, ivy-covered buildings, and research libraries. What if he's right?"

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/08/the-future-of-college/375071/

[NavyCrimson]

Well I'd go for getting rid of tenure as the very first item!!! After that you'd see a dramatic improvement.

[ideal]

We have a better shot at making the future happen, than the big aircraft carriers. A few imaginative people, a couple of tweaks, and we can project something important that the world actually wants and needs. We should be excited at the new possibilities, and I hope we take advantage of changing methods, to facilitate the path of good people, rather than throwing up barriers to their development.

[leopold]

There's no doubt that you can replace a college professor in all ways, and I'm not just saying that to be mean. On-line education is certainly the way of the future and there are going to be plenty of people that take advantage of this way of learning.

But it's all the other things that comes with college that can't be replicated, and I'm not just saying that in a hippy-dip, abstract kind of way. It's the people you go to college with and all the ways that you interact with them that you take away the most from.

- Actual networking, professional, academic and social - I'm going to an old fraternity brothers wedding in a couple of weeks. You don't meet tons of new people through Facebook.
- Studying overseas
- Student life
- Dating - read the thread "Who met their spouse on campus"
- Athletics - how many people would shoot someone to be a college athlete, even at an NAIA school?
- Teachers - yes, actual interacting with faculty counts

I mean, the guys right, no doubt. But college is more than just pure education.

[couch 'em]

Would be easy to incorporate these techniques in the traditional college model. The criticism is in the lecture structure, not the campus environment which can only be a good thing

[ponyboy]

Fascinating article. Very thought provoking.

[East Coast Mustang]

I think SMU should get out ahead of the curve and give students the option to get expedited bachelor's degrees in 3 years and drop the stupid CF requirements or whatever they're called. All those stupid requirements for BS classes do is keep students in college longer and drive up their student loan debt if Mom and Dad aren't footing the bill.

I was a liberal arts major at SMU- I took maybe five classes that I actually learned something useful in. Archaeology? no. Anthropology? no. Modern Novels? no.

[tristatecoog]

Can you graduate in three years if you have enough AP credit?

[couch 'em]

Generally with you ECM but I have to acknowledge without CF requirements I wouldn't have taken Scalice's CF The Scientific Method. Best class I took in all of college.

[East Coast Mustang]

Generally with you ECM but I have to acknowledge without CF requirements I wouldn't have taken Scalice's CF The Scientific Method. Best class I took in all of college.

If you want to take them, then by all means let people do it. But requiring people to take a ton of classes they won't use in their careers and rack up more student debt seems like something we should try to alleviate

[NewAgeMustange]

When I graduated with my biology degree we had a girl that had done the entire program in 2 years. I think that the time the only way that she could have done this if she took 18 hours during both terms and then 9 hours during both summer sessions each summer and take 6 hours during J term. But that is taking some time to map classes out. It would have been nice if I didn't have to take Into to Philosophy. I did horrible in that class something about hard sciences and it don't fit together.

[Planter's Punch]

Competition like this is great because they challenge current academics and force them to innovate. Having taken an MOOC, I can personally say they do not replace having peers or faculty, but you can see lots of great ideas mainstream academics can incorporate. Lots of things can be automated, so that actual time with faculty and peers is spent on things you can't just do at home on your computer. Do that at home and come prepared to class.

To those thinking SMU requires to many liberal arts classes, I agree. The idea is to make you a well rounded thinker, but I would propose they replace some of those electives and focus more on basic STEM skills that give you the ability to adapt to our every changing economy. Everyone, should have that one weird liberal arts class, but they should also have a basic understanding of computing, statistics, and math.

[NavyCrimson]

"To those thinking SMU requires to many liberal arts classes, I agree. The idea is to make you a well rounded thinker, but I would propose they replace some of those electives and focus more on basic STEM skills that give you the ability to adapt to our every changing economy. Everyone, should have that one weird liberal arts class, but they should also have a basic understanding of computing, statistics, and math."

ABSOLUTELY!!!

[coloradoStang]

I'm graduating in May with an engineering degree and with absolutely zero knowledge (besides own personal readings) about investments, basic accounting, personal finance, etc. Which is a shame because I will most likely need to know about those things in the near future.I feel like everyone needs to know a little about that stuff no matter what industry you are involved in there is money and business principles that are valuable to anyone. Its a joke and a disservice to future employers that I know more about "asian cinema" than basic accounting principles or how/why to invest in a 401K. (thankfully I've read a couple basic books)

[NavyCrimson]

Very well stated 'stang.