[afvictory]

I definitely believe that there is a need to transition college programs into an online format, or at least present the option to college students. It is, however, tricky for various fields of study. While for computer science it's definitely easy to offer an online curriculum, I would say the value for a lot of the physical sciences comes from the hands on experience. This is the case for business students as well, where most of the value of in person classes is derived from the network that one builds. It's much harder to build those kinds of relationships without engaging with other students face to face.

That being said, in my experience regarding the computer science perspective, having mandatory in person lectures added little to no value in terms of actual knowledge gained. In fact, I would argue that not being able to participate online was a detriment to my personal college experience. In order to avoid taking on massive amounts of debt, I had to work full-time while doing my undergrad. I was lucky enough to land a full time development gig my sophomore year, but it required being in the office 80% of the week. Between work, commuting, and sitting in a lecture hall, I had very few hours left in the day to actually work on my assignments and this caused me to make sacrifices in order to manage my time.

There was nothing communicated in our lectures that could not have been communicated in a pre-recorded video or via a class forum. The option to participate online will open up doors for many individuals who might not have been able to pursue higher education before, such as those who have to work or take care of their families.

The article mentions the OMSCS program at Georgia Tech [1], and I can't recommend this program enough. I'm currently about half way through the curriculum, and the format of the program alone addresses almost every issue I've had with my undergrad. I am able to watch lectures and do projects at my own pace which makes managing my time significantly easier. It also comes at 10% of the cost of my undergrad and that's a price that's hard to beat.

[1] https://omscs.gatech.edu/