The New Classroom

Times are changing folks. As we know, chalkboards and wooden desks are a thing of the past. But, who would think the classroom as a whole may be a dying trend as well. Online education is a fast growing alternative to regular classroom learning. Online education allows people of all ages, lifestyles and hidden agendas to get their degree. Tons of universities nationwide are jumping on this band wagon.

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses; it is an online education outlet that allows its users to take college level courses by credible professors in almost any topic one can think of. Recently, it has become very popular within the Ivy Leagues: Princeton, Harvard, M.I.T, just to name a few.   

New York Times reporter, A.J. Jacobs, rated different aspects of the MOOC program through a lettering system. Think of it as a MOOC report card. Most aspects of the programs received a “B” including: professors, assignments and overall experience. The convenience factors came in with the highest grade of an “A”, but the “student to teacher interaction” rated a low “D”. This is obviously not an education outlet for brown nosers.

Although, MOOCs are in its early days, this concept says a lot about what the future holds. Some of me believes that the university system may be dying. We are in an age where most (most not all) of the information we learn in classrooms we can easily access through Google. Furthermore, with tuition rates raising and financial aids falling, higher education will be limited to a small percentage of rich kids. So, why limit high education? The internet has changed basically every aspect of our lives over the last decade or so, why not our traditional classrooms either?

Should smaller, less prestigious universities and colleges adopt MOOC? I think it be a smart business move to definitely keep an eye on the program. Although, it doesn’t necessarily bring in the money (it’s free) it will definitely showcases the schools values. Let’s take into consideration a scenario:

Let’s say, University of Tomorrowland accepts Jimmy into their Sparkles and Magic program. Jimmy barely got past Algebra 2 in high school and his SAT scores weren’t so hot either. Jimmy is taking College Math and Chemistry during his first semester in the fall. What are Jimmy’s chances of passing these courses? I don’t know the exact percentages or statistics, but if this school happened to have MOOC classes offered that prepared Jimmy with adequate knowledge to help him succeed in he would have a higher chance of passing. And, graduating. And, becoming successful within his career(s).

With this access to extra knowledge, students (and just people in general) will become more hirable and more innovative. In the United States, many companies are looking outside of the U.S. for new hires every day. Why? Obviously, because some of our education systems are a little off. Let’s give our students a better chance to succeed and give people of the United States to get back on top.

I think an advertising campaign should really be put into place concerning MOOCs. Make MOOCs a fun new trend. It can be America’s new past time: learning. Commercials with friends at Starbucks taking a philosophy course together.

The internet is changing the education game. I think if universities don’t hop on this bandwagon, they will be left in the dust.