| This has to be really cost-effective for MIT; I mean, they aren't really putting much in the way of resources towards these online students. But I think it's an attempt to solve a problem that's already in the process of evolving into a non-problem. Most of the good programmers I know just go to school mostly for the credentials and to socialize with other programmers there, and then go home and self-teach for actual skill. School centers around getting a job. But it's starting to become not the only way to get a job. (Leaving out startups, of course; you don't really need credentials there except to impress VCs.) Some companies are recognizing that formal education in programming is not very effective, and are paying more attention to StackOverflow and GitHub accounts and that sort of thing. Our work and expertise is becoming more visible through the Internet. That suggests that maybe we're not going to have to worry so much about credentials. My older brother is doing very well for himself as a developer, without any formal training past some classes in high school back in the 90s. As for myself, I'm leaving for Kansas City once I'm done with my Associate's degree, and I'm going to UMKC there... for a few semesters, until I find a job and/or a cofounder. I don't intend to finish the degree I'm going to sign up for. They let slip during my visit there that they're already having issues convincing students to finish their degrees rather than let themselves be hired out. But I do intend to go, in order to meet other programmers. That's the real power of universities: they collect bright, ambitious people and let them work together. Online classes don't have that power, and the credential problem is already being solved better, so I don't think this is going to go very far. But maybe it'll help accelerate the current solution by giving more credence to self-teaching and online study. Good try, but it'll probably be irrelevant in the end. Kind of begs the question of whether one could recreate the social aspect of universities and leave out the expense of formal classes as they are now? For instance, whether you could make a sort of hackerspace-modelled university where all the "classes" were projects that one student was looking for help with? I'd attend that. Hmm... sounds familiar, doesn't it? ;) |
Michael Dell almost folded Dell early days over a supply chain problem in fact; he was pre-buying inventory for his computers, and got bitten by a technology change leaving him holding enough worthless inventory that it could have easily ended the company.
At any rate, if you're Dell, you want people thoroughly trained in this before they get to go muck up your new laptop deployment schedule; even a small screw up in a small part could mean major revenue problems.
MOST startup developer screwups aren't on that scale, which is one reason it can work well to just jump in like you are planning on doing.