EDUCATION DIVE: California's online education pilot may change the face of college

 

 

Jan. 15, 2013

By Roger Riddell

http://www.educationdive.com/news/californias-online-education-pilot-may-change-the-face-of-college/89828/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Education+Dive+created+2013-01-15+090038616452&utm_content=Education+Dive+created+2013-01-15+090038616452+CID_d5126d0cf7b72a76d1b8f39df34d5cb2&utm_source=campaignmonitor&utm_term=Californias%20online%20education%20pilot%20may%20change%20the%20face%20of%20college

Dive Summary:

• Backed by Gov. Jerry Brown, the California State University system today announced a pilot program for $150 lower-division and remedial online courses from Udacity at its San Jose State University campus.
• Over half of incoming SJSU students don't meet basic requirements and only 48% ever graduate, and a recent EdX pilot found that blending SJSU's courses with world-class online lectures lowered the number of students receiving a C or lower by 31%.
• If successful, the pilot may change the face of college, with lower-tier and remedial lectures replaced entirely by less-expensive online courses.

From the article:
Today, the largest university system in the world, the California State University system, announced a pilot for $150 lower-division online courses at one of its campuses — a move that spells the end of higher education as we know it. Lower-division courses are the financial backbone of many part-time faculty and departments (especially the humanities). As someone who has taught large courses at a University of California, I can assure readers that my job could have easily been automated. Most of college–the expansive campuses and large lecture halls–will crumble into ghost towns as budget-strapped schools herd students online. ...