Tuesday 20 March 2012

University 3.0 or the end of the traditional education

This article http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/studium/0,1518,817889,00.html  is just the tip of the iceberg.  Ever since some elite universities started to upload lectures or even complete courses on the internet, access to ivy league education became part of the flat(ter) world.  Let's extrapolate a bit. In 10 years in time this is what graduate 3.0 can look like: not a degree from one university but a portfolio of courses taken mostly on line, combined  (optionally) with some face to face courses at a nearby university. The on-line courses would be those from top of the field lecturers and professors. With the arrival of wide spread holographic teleconferencing software/ hardware, the on line experience would emulate face to face teaching. The wealth of courses and experience would give rise to very interesting degrees. The combined total of courses taken might even exceed those of a regular three year degree.  It would be highly individual and, in some cases, probably too narrow. But market forces will take care of that.   International accreditation institutes or some forward thinking universities could then, on the basis of the portfolio, decide to award degrees.

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