Image by George Eastman House via Flickr
From What Colleges Should Learn From Newspapers’ Decline:
Newspapers are dying. Are universities next? The parallels between them are closer than they appear. Both industries are in the business of creating and communicating information. Paradoxically, both are threatened by the way technology has made that easier than ever before.[...]
And it would be a grave mistake to assume that the regulatory walls of accreditation will protect traditional universities forever. Elite institutions like Stanford University and Yale University (which are, luckily for them, in the eternally lucrative sorting and prestige business) are giving away extremely good lectures on the Internet, free. Web sites like Academic Earth are organizing those and thousands more like them into “playlists,” which is really just iPodspeak for “curricula.” Every year the high schools graduate another three million students who have never known a world that worked any other way.
There are four value propositions of universities:
- Helping students familiarize themselves with a topic (an informative, entertaining lecture showing why someone should care and up-to-date pointers)
- Helping students master the applications of a topic (project supervision, in-depth tutorials, apprenticeship)
- Helping students contribute to a topic and push the envelope (research apprenticeship, collaboration, leadership)
- Network building among students of similar capability, similar or complementary interests
The first value proposition can be done more effectively with the use of the WWW, but one should be careful: if this content isn’t compensated, the compensation will take the form of sometimes hidden advertising (did you notice the image on this post?). The second can partly be done remotely with a lower cost – at places like Columbia, it’s often the grad students who tutor, while professors do research. The third requires excellence, dedication and research funding – if there is no funding, the research will become confidential and proprietary. The fourth requires sorting and community organization.
It is always a good idea to rapidly adopt new technology, some institutions and individuals are pushing the edge with either video lectures, or with course materials. We’re trying to innovate with blogging.
[Updated after reading thoughtful comments by hal, yolio and Igor Carron. This blog is really a community.]
Actually I don't think this is that bad. This is the same issue we've had with books forever: why don't people just learn by reading the book? (Aside from that magical degree next to your name.) As a teacher, I would love if I could assign students to watch a big-wig-but-still-great-lecturer talk about topics, and then use class time to do other stuff. Sure class time would be shorter, but I know that wouldn't be the end of the world for me. Of course, it means being somewhat locked in to a few chosen curricula, which some faculty won't like, but I don't really think that's that big of a deal, especially for undergrad level courses.
Hate to be snotty, but universities continue to add value to the knowledge they present, something that newspapers gave up on. Going to class is usually better than just reading the book. I imagine if newspapers continued to present decent analysis, their services would still be needed. But nowadays, you get better research from amateur bloggers than professional operations.
Aleks,
You are right, there is a definite parallel here and I am glad you pointed it out. The previous commenters are right as well but I would not be overly surprised that a large part of certain curicula have been commoditized to the point where reading a book and passing an exam are all that is required. Many disruptive movements or technology have always been underestimated in the first place.
What I think needs to be watched is really the number of times students get to have an a-ah moment instead of having that moment reading a book. I for one, always had trouble with oral lectures and felt that everything was put in place only after reading the associated book on the matter. The other question one should ask is: what technology a la Youtube will allow folks to ask questions during the video class and how could we expect the "teacher" to answer it. Very crudely, one can now directly link to a specific part of a video. The question is how do we make this an easier task ? and then how do we crowdsource or ask for a teacher to respond to the question?
One of the things that as a teacher you get to have on a platter is the homogeneity of the student's level by requiring them to take certain classes before making them yours. How could a simple technology driven system allow for that ?
Finally, different teachers have different teaching styles and I would not be overly surprised to learn that people get to learn the same concept when it is presented to them in several "shapes". A "Youtube" university already provides that convenience in providing content of the same subjects by different people.
Igor.
Hal, great point: I think lecturers *should* point the students not just to books and papers, but also to videos of lectures online!
Yolio, agreed!
Igor, we've actually been experimenting with such technology for asking questions during video lectures, the problem is funding (plenty of which is going to people who teach merely by reading from other peoples' books and provide no additional value).
Aleks,
I was thinking about a simple way to do the following, instead of watching a whole video like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvIHHK_X3B8
go directly to the part of interest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvIHHK_X3B8#t=3m30…
with a big button for student to punch when it gets difficult for them to understand. Right now it is too difficult for students to do the html editing and there is no infrastructure enabling people to ask questions. It is just a matter of time though.
Igor.
i'll say one thing universities can do that web videos can't: serve as a motivating factor. the folks on freakonomics would call it a commitment devise, but basically the fact of being in university and forced to do something (read assigned pieces, work on problems, etc) makes us more likely to do it, even if some students learn almost entirely from a book and don't use the added value of the school.
Much more than just lectures – credentialing (this students has been asssessed as knowing …) and coaching (you keep dropping your guard when you throw a hook – you fail to make all your assumptions clear, do another 20 push-ups – derive the two stage mle for this model, take (and pass) a course in measure theory) seem crucial …
But lecturing itself likley will evolve …
Keith
The guys at VideoLectures could definitely implement such a thing.
Keith, good point about credentialing – although I sometimes feel it would be better to leave that part to professional associations like the bar association for lawyers. As for coaching, it's my #2.