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I'm still waiting for a dramatic disruption of the college/post-secondary industry. I hope it comes really soon, but I'm starting to doubt if it'll come within

I'm still waiting for a dramatic disruption of the college/post-secondary industry. I hope it comes really soon, but I'm starting to doubt if it'll come within the next 5 years. I think it's going to take lots of people to disrupt education especially since the government will get involve. I'm starting to feel that some courses in college/university isn't worth that much money. Like a 50,000 degree that has lectures and materials freely available online? Seriously? Furthermore, some professors are amazing at research, but has no business in teaching. This looks like a massive waste. It's a huge problem and there are big opportunities in this area.

losteric 11y ago
> I'm still waiting for a dramatic disruption of the college/post-secondary industry. [..] I'm starting to feel that some courses in college/university isn't worth that much money. It's still coming. As college grads increase in supply their value decreases (top-tier colleges/students aside). More and more students are realizing their college education has a negative ROI... in fact, outside of software, most of my friends are not using their degree at their job. I think the "code-school" trend is the start of a "micro-degree" program. Self-service fluff-free education with a standard certification exam is pretty compelling. As we see that proliferate to other domains, we'll start to see micro-certifications (just the test). The missing component seems to be the in-person meetings and networking that comes with physical college. I predict we'll see more online school(s) supporting a physical meeting space for students to network and learn from each other... maybe even a new campus model that strips out the cruft of traditional centralized education institutions.
benbreen 11y ago
One thing that I think gets lost in these debates is that those college professors who do amazing research and are terrible teachers are still important for society and shouldn't be kicked to the curb. In my experience, these are the type of people who wouldn't be able to land on their feet particularly well outside the academic system - the unorthodox, unsociable weirdos who work on some obscure problem for years. These are also the types of people who occasionally make fundamental breakthroughs, or the ones whose dogged pursuit of a seemingly impractical goal ends up reaping unexpected rewards in terms of new discoveries. I wouldn't want to take a class with the versions of this type that I know, but I'm still glad they exist and have a home in academia. I just finished my first semester as a history professor and based on my experiences I very much agree that the current system of university education and especially administration would benefit from some kind of fundamental change. But university research is a separate issue, and I worry that trying to "disrupt universities" without thinking through the societal implications might end up harming this amazing apparatus for pursuing advanced research that the US has built up over the past century. I'd argue that those professors who are terrible teachers but amazing researchers have a real value and that we need to keep in mind that universities have always been about more than teaching. (The ultimate case in point is Oxford's All Souls College, which literally doesn't allow any students onto their campus without a letter of reference - but is nonetheless an amazing institution which has given the world real benefits).
relkor 11y ago
You do not have to wait 5 years, I am working on an MVP to directly compete with private, public, and degree mill schools. Expect dramatically lower costs in the short term as we landgrab.
marme 11y ago
it has already started in the tech sector. There are dozens of coding schools that teach you to get a developer positions in less than a year. It is the equivalent of a trade school for developers. It will be interesting to see how the industry adapts to a large percentage of their workforce not having university education. will there be distinction between those with CS degrees and those without?

losteric 11y ago

> I'm still waiting for a dramatic disruption of the college/post-secondary industry. [..] I'm starting to feel that some courses in college/university isn't worth that much money. It's still coming. As college grads increase in supply their value decreases (top-tier colleges/students aside). More and more students are realizing their college education has a negative ROI... in fact, outside of software, most of my friends are not using their degree at their job. I think the "code-school" trend is the start of a "micro-degree" program. Self-service fluff-free education with a standard certification exam is pretty compelling. As we see that proliferate to other domains, we'll start to see micro-certifications (just the test). The missing component seems to be the in-person meetings and networking that comes with physical college. I predict we'll see more online school(s) supporting a physical meeting space for students to network and learn from each other... maybe even a new campus model that strips out the cruft of traditional centralized education institutions.

benbreen 11y ago

One thing that I think gets lost in these debates is that those college professors who do amazing research and are terrible teachers are still important for society and shouldn't be kicked to the curb. In my experience, these are the type of people who wouldn't be able to land on their feet particularly well outside the academic system - the unorthodox, unsociable weirdos who work on some obscure problem for years. These are also the types of people who occasionally make fundamental breakthroughs, or the ones whose dogged pursuit of a seemingly impractical goal ends up reaping unexpected rewards in terms of new discoveries. I wouldn't want to take a class with the versions of this type that I know, but I'm still glad they exist and have a home in academia. I just finished my first semester as a history professor and based on my experiences I very much agree that the current system of university education and especially administration would benefit from some kind of fundamental change. But university research is a separate issue, and I worry that trying to "disrupt universities" without thinking through the societal implications might end up harming this amazing apparatus for pursuing advanced research that the US has built up over the past century. I'd argue that those professors who are terrible teachers but amazing researchers have a real value and that we need to keep in mind that universities have always been about more than teaching. (The ultimate case in point is Oxford's All Souls College, which literally doesn't allow any students onto their campus without a letter of reference - but is nonetheless an amazing institution which has given the world real benefits).

relkor 11y ago

You do not have to wait 5 years, I am working on an MVP to directly compete with private, public, and degree mill schools. Expect dramatically lower costs in the short term as we landgrab.

marme 11y ago

it has already started in the tech sector. There are dozens of coding schools that teach you to get a developer positions in less than a year. It is the equivalent of a trade school for developers. It will be interesting to see how the industry adapts to a large percentage of their workforce not having university education. will there be distinction between those with CS degrees and those without?