[n0rm]

Disengaging from yesteryear's institutions is not going to help them.

Best way is to force them to adapt. MOOCs seem to be the thing that will make education assess its business practices.

I wish I didn't have to refer to education as a business, but alas, the idea that you can fine-tune any organization through business cases has been perpetuated.

[vertak]

If the universities are smart and look at the MOOC's not as a competitor but as a partner, then higher-ed can improve. I'm a college student now and one of our school's math classes experimented with flipped teaching. I think the emergence of MOOC's is what largely caused this my school's faculty to seriously consider the meter of online learning, to the point where they were willing to A/B test a required differential equations class. While the first results from MOOC's haven't been what people expected, http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/from-a-million-mooc-u... At least, like one of the comments above said, they're making the established higher ed organizations rethink their practices.

[analog31]

Alternatives to traditional college education would be great. How will we know that they work?

[sj4nz]

By MOOC you mean "Massive open online course" I assume?

[n0rm]

Yes.

A diploma from a prestigious university only means you can go through better gilded doors. After that, your measure is how much money you helped your employer make.

After a while, the metric becomes what you've done (in the past) to prove your worth.

If MOOCs are taken seriously, and can compete with prestigious diplomas when it comes to that first job, then you've got a game changer.

Sadly, the only way to make a business (again, pains me to say that) pay attention is if they lose money.

[walshemj]

yes right so you get to work a MC Job instead of a good one - not exactly a endorsement for MOOCs is it.

You go to Oxbridge/ivy league universities for the contacts not just the piece of paper

[n0rm]

Exactly. You should be learning things in college, not kissing ass. That's the very definition of the downward spiral education is in.

Those contacts you make in big-name schools are mostly wishful thinking. Those places don't train you to be a friend. They train you to be ruthless, efficient "winners".

Make your FU money and bail. Nietzsche explained why;

> He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

p.s. a white collar mcjob makes more than an adjunct "professor".

[walshemj]

er no I don't think you understand the advantage that going to a good school and the a top 10 University can bring.

Going to eaton then oxford and the bullingdon club opens far more doors look at the UK Cabinet.

Do you think Pres Obahma would he be where he is today without going to Harvard and had just a community organizer with just a local Chicago high school education.

[n0rm]

Do you really think Obama is where he is today out of merit?

He won't rock the boat. He won't go JFK on people and cause a ruckus.

Do you really believe an upper-middle-class lawyer can breeze past the multi-billionaires?

Look at what's happening in Detroit. Who the scapegoat is for the downfall of an entire city.