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Arguments about the humanities versus the hard sciences aside, we'll need fewer and fewer PhDs as the teaching tools become better and distance and "free" cours
by forgetsusername 11y ago
Arguments about the humanities versus the hard sciences aside, we'll need fewer and fewer PhDs as the teaching tools become better and distance and "free" courses become more commonplace and accepted.
It wasn't difficult to see coming. Supply and demand; when one great professor can teach thousands over the internet, who wants to learn from a half-ass instructor (of which there are many)?
- panglott 11y agoThe evidence I've seen suggests the opposite: the self-motivated natural autodidacts that do well in MOOCs would do well in nearly any educational setting, whereas the many people who need more scaffolding, support, and personal instruction do much, much worse. Teachers do add an extraordinary amount of value: if what you're doing can be summed up as a reading list and lecture series, rather than a conversational interaction and personal attention, then it isn't actually adding a whole lot of value to the instructional setting. The problem is that while university teachers add can add huge amount of value, their profession makes actual teaching a chore to be foisted off on graduate students and adjuncts rather than a goal, in favor of really dubious publication.
- adenadel 11y agoI don't disagree with your conclusion, but I think your evidence is wrong. A PhD is first and foremost a research degree and for many research is their primary responsibility. More educational resources won't reduce research in any way.