The College Caste System and Crushing Student Debt
It is not at all surprising that many well-intentioned folks concerned with the costs of higher education today have turned to technology in hopes of reducing costs and limiting tuition increases. After all, when students are at home in their pajamas and the professor (maybe in his pajamas, too) is connected via the web (in real time or asynchronously) from anywhere in the world, and no one is using physical classroom space with maintenance costs, utility costs, and parking problems, how great could that be? Pretty great, particularly if you are a large public university dealing with shrinking shares of public funds while trying to compete for top students, pay the football coach, stock libraries, run research facilities, and hire quality faculty.
After all, if you can put a good chunk of classes online for students who can't afford to drive in or live on campus, and hire some of those ultra-cheap academic sharecroppers to teach them at about $3K per class, maybe you can build that new health club just across from Fraternity Row or that new living/seminar center for the gifted
After all, if you can put a good chunk of classes online for students who can't afford to drive in or live on campus, and hire some of those ultra-cheap academic sharecroppers to teach them at about $3K per class, maybe you can build that new health club just across from Fraternity Row or that new living/seminar center for the gifted