Comments on: Sending Universities Down the Path of the Newspaper Industry http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/2012/05/18/sending-universities-down-the-path-of-the-newspaper-industry/ Dept. of Political Science, Stanford University Wed, 01 May 2013 23:04:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: On-Line Education Is Really Interesting Right Now | sef.kloninger.com http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/2012/05/18/sending-universities-down-the-path-of-the-newspaper-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-1377 On-Line Education Is Really Interesting Right Now | sef.kloninger.com Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:49:37 +0000 http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/?p=691#comment-1377 [...] in lines for reports. Stanford Professor Rob Reich made a very coherent argument for this in a recent blog post. (Getting to work with folks like him is a big job perq, [...] [...] in lines for reports. Stanford Professor Rob Reich made a very coherent argument for this in a recent blog post. (Getting to work with folks like him is a big job perq, [...]

]]> By: The Wind of Freedom Blows: Democratizing Higher Education | suddenlycompletely http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/2012/05/18/sending-universities-down-the-path-of-the-newspaper-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-885 The Wind of Freedom Blows: Democratizing Higher Education | suddenlycompletely Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:41:46 +0000 http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/?p=691#comment-885 [...] president, John Etchemendy, when he says that universities as institutions exist to perform a “bidirectional certification” on students and faculty – making sure that the faculty are capable teachers and making sure that [...] [...] president, John Etchemendy, when he says that universities as institutions exist to perform a “bidirectional certification” on students and faculty – making sure that the faculty are capable teachers and making sure that [...]

]]> By: Tim Ogden http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/2012/05/18/sending-universities-down-the-path-of-the-newspaper-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-761 Tim Ogden Tue, 22 May 2012 21:47:27 +0000 http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/?p=691#comment-761 For the sake of universities, I hope that there is something missing from Etchemendy's formulation. The formulation makes perfect sense in a situation where there are large opportunity costs to trying multiple alternatives--e.g. it is difficult or impossible to try the City College of San Francisco and Stanford and compare value. Similarly it is expensive for faculty to admit anyone off the streets to a course when there are a limited number of seats available. On a related, but tangential path about the value of universities: I wonder about the value of the (elite) university to people outside entrenched power networks. No matter where you grew up, if you get into Stanford, you are not connected to that community. While access to Stanford is exclusionary, it is inclusionary to those who surmount that hurdle in a way that nothing else in American society is that I can think of. So while online education may reduce barriers to access of that quality of education, it potentially increases barriers to access to the network. It will be very interesting to learn about the relative value of those two parts of the university experience in the coming years. In online education, neither constraint exists. And therefore other, cheaper mechanisms for evaluating quality and certifying faculty and students are likely to emerge quickly. For the sake of universities, I hope that there is something missing from Etchemendy’s formulation. The formulation makes perfect sense in a situation where there are large opportunity costs to trying multiple alternatives–e.g. it is difficult or impossible to try the City College of San Francisco and Stanford and compare value. Similarly it is expensive for faculty to admit anyone off the streets to a course when there are a limited number of seats available.

On a related, but tangential path about the value of universities: I wonder about the value of the (elite) university to people outside entrenched power networks. No matter where you grew up, if you get into Stanford, you are not connected to that community. While access to Stanford is exclusionary, it is inclusionary to those who surmount that hurdle in a way that nothing else in American society is that I can think of.

So while online education may reduce barriers to access of that quality of education, it potentially increases barriers to access to the network. It will be very interesting to learn about the relative value of those two parts of the university experience in the coming years.

In online education, neither constraint exists. And therefore other, cheaper mechanisms for evaluating quality and certifying faculty and students are likely to emerge quickly.

]]> By: Lucy Bernholz http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/2012/05/18/sending-universities-down-the-path-of-the-newspaper-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-751 Lucy Bernholz Fri, 18 May 2012 20:13:50 +0000 http://www.stanford.edu/group/reichresearch/cgi-bin/site/?p=691#comment-751 Rob Fascinating. I'm in the middle of reading The Philosophical Breakfast Club about the "creation of modern science." According to the author, the 4 natural philosophers most credited with creating "scientists" as a profession did so partially through the connections they made at Cambridge, but their contributions to this significant change in how and where and by whom science was done was more a result of their actions as a collective of colleagues and less something done by the institution. Yet Cambridge (which gave us both Newton and Bacon, among others) has surely played a key role in the sciences and scientific profession for centuries. I think there is a "greater than the sum of its parts" piece missing from Etchemendy's argument - it's not simply the certification of individuals but the certification and clustering of them over time - that has lasting value. Generations of scholars and classes of students. MOOCs will challenge the credentialling and selection process in the short term - what will emerge in the longer term? Rob
Fascinating. I’m in the middle of reading The Philosophical Breakfast Club about the “creation of modern science.” According to the author, the 4 natural philosophers most credited with creating “scientists” as a profession did so partially through the connections they made at Cambridge, but their contributions to this significant change in how and where and by whom science was done was more a result of their actions as a collective of colleagues and less something done by the institution. Yet Cambridge (which gave us both Newton and Bacon, among others) has surely played a key role in the sciences and scientific profession for centuries.

I think there is a “greater than the sum of its parts” piece missing from Etchemendy’s argument – it’s not simply the certification of individuals but the certification and clustering of them over time – that has lasting value. Generations of scholars and classes of students. MOOCs will challenge the credentialling and selection process in the short term – what will emerge in the longer term?

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