|
|
|
|
|
|
by michael_miller
4775 days ago
|
|
|
An online PhD would be much harder to do in a large scale. The first part of a PhD is (essentially) a masters degree. That part, as evidenced by the article, could be provided in a MOOC-style format. The second part of a PhD is doing research with an advisor. You meet with your advisor every week, and he guides you through a research project. Unfortunately, this type of 1-1 interaction doesn't scale, so doing an online version of a PhD would offer comparatively few benefits compared to doing it in-person. |
|
|
Some PhD students meet their advisors once a week. Some see them once a year. What's different about a PhD vs MS is the expectation of a unique, individual contribution to the field: something that's never been done before.
Many people can learn existing material on their own, but very few people can get to the frontier and deliver something the field considers important (noting that what's considered important is often subject to fads and political trends that one needs social access to know where things stand) on their own.
It will be interesting (and exciting) to see whether we can democratize education up to the MS level.
Here's the real question, though: once we train people up to be strong computer scientists, what are they going to do in a world where priorities are set and work is defined by mediocrities? Is just knowing more going to give us the power to outperform them, or is it just one of many steps?