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Oh. Another "the next bubble is in academe" post. How interesting. It even has the same graph as all others. Fascinating. Excuse my completely non-constructive

by Emore 16y ago

Oh. Another "the next bubble is in academe" post. How interesting. It even has the same graph as all others. Fascinating. Excuse my completely non-constructive comment, but am I the only one who thinks this topic has been dissected enough?

yequalsx 16y ago
It is annoying seeing these posts. However, perhaps there is a great opportunity for hackers in this market. I've created a bunch of my own videos (like Khanacademy but better) and have been teaching online classes for 5 years at a community college. My experience is that roughly 30% of the students pass my class without any interaction from me. They just need to be pointed in the right direction and need to know in what order the topics should be covered. This fact, coupled with the fact that all elearning websites suck make for an opportunity. I don't know enough about programming to pull off my ideas on what can be done. There are inefficiences in the market but not as much as articles about academe being the next bubble suggest.
- piguy314 16y ago
  The biggest barrier to entry in higher education has nothing to do with the context of the education or course material, it's accreditation. In fact it's so hard and expensive to become accredited that most education entrepreneurs just BUY accreditation by purchasing a failing school. Until we address the high barriers to entry, highly entrenched players, and government support of the education industry I doubt any innovation will gain significant traction outside of skills training and tutoring.
al3x 16y ago
It may be repetitive, but so were the many books and articles about that recent stock market crashes and housing crises. These things matter to a lot of regular people, and by extension they should matter to entrepreneurs. There's opportunity here.
nhebb 16y ago
I think in certain circles it has been dissected enough, but I doubt the message has gotten out to the public at large. It's still a hot button issue for me, at least. When I was in 7th grade, my English teacher had us read Macbeth, Northwest Passage, The Last of the Mohicans, The Red Badge of Courage, and other notable works. We discussed them in detail and wrote essays ad nauseum. It was hard, but we were the better for it. Last year, in my son's Literature class (note; it's not English anymore - it's Literature), they read a smattering of short stories from a brightly illustrated textbook and his sole "book report" was to make a pop-up book from his chosen novel "Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian" (now a major motion picture!). This was typical of many of his classes - plenty of busy work, but thin on substance. His middle school ranks very well by state standards, but it's just not a solid education, in my opinion. This isn't a generational issue, either. Kids' minds are as pliable now as they were in previous generations, but I don't think the schools push them enough on the right things.
rubashov 16y ago
It's a huge issue that the vast majority of people remain delusional about. It bears repeating. Did you complain about prescient analyses of the housing bubble, too? "Bubble" might not be a good choice of term for this case because bubbles pop with some dramatic short run consequences. The only way that happens is if the student loan machine suddenly breaks down, and in that case the driving issue will be a broad credit crisis, not the bursting of the education bubble. More realistically diplomas just start "trading" lower and lower over time, as more people and employers simply don't care.
Alex3917 16y ago
The blog chatter leading up to the housing crisis was exactly the same. The fact that people are just starting to talk about this within the last year means it will be another 5-7 years before anything happens.

by Emore 16y ago

yequalsx 16y ago

It is annoying seeing these posts. However, perhaps there is a great opportunity for hackers in this market. I've created a bunch of my own videos (like Khanacademy but better) and have been teaching online classes for 5 years at a community college. My experience is that roughly 30% of the students pass my class without any interaction from me. They just need to be pointed in the right direction and need to know in what order the topics should be covered. This fact, coupled with the fact that all elearning websites suck make for an opportunity. I don't know enough about programming to pull off my ideas on what can be done. There are inefficiences in the market but not as much as articles about academe being the next bubble suggest.

piguy314 16y ago
The biggest barrier to entry in higher education has nothing to do with the context of the education or course material, it's accreditation. In fact it's so hard and expensive to become accredited that most education entrepreneurs just BUY accreditation by purchasing a failing school. Until we address the high barriers to entry, highly entrenched players, and government support of the education industry I doubt any innovation will gain significant traction outside of skills training and tutoring.

al3x 16y ago

It may be repetitive, but so were the many books and articles about that recent stock market crashes and housing crises. These things matter to a lot of regular people, and by extension they should matter to entrepreneurs. There's opportunity here.

nhebb 16y ago

I think in certain circles it has been dissected enough, but I doubt the message has gotten out to the public at large. It's still a hot button issue for me, at least. When I was in 7th grade, my English teacher had us read Macbeth, Northwest Passage, The Last of the Mohicans, The Red Badge of Courage, and other notable works. We discussed them in detail and wrote essays ad nauseum. It was hard, but we were the better for it. Last year, in my son's Literature class (note; it's not English anymore - it's Literature), they read a smattering of short stories from a brightly illustrated textbook and his sole "book report" was to make a pop-up book from his chosen novel "Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian" (now a major motion picture!). This was typical of many of his classes - plenty of busy work, but thin on substance. His middle school ranks very well by state standards, but it's just not a solid education, in my opinion. This isn't a generational issue, either. Kids' minds are as pliable now as they were in previous generations, but I don't think the schools push them enough on the right things.

rubashov 16y ago

It's a huge issue that the vast majority of people remain delusional about. It bears repeating. Did you complain about prescient analyses of the housing bubble, too? "Bubble" might not be a good choice of term for this case because bubbles pop with some dramatic short run consequences. The only way that happens is if the student loan machine suddenly breaks down, and in that case the driving issue will be a broad credit crisis, not the bursting of the education bubble. More realistically diplomas just start "trading" lower and lower over time, as more people and employers simply don't care.

Alex3917 16y ago

The blog chatter leading up to the housing crisis was exactly the same. The fact that people are just starting to talk about this within the last year means it will be another 5-7 years before anything happens.