3 ms·

When I went to college (2005 grad), almost all my textbooks were optional. A couple friends and I usually pooled our money and bought one to share, which was gr

When I went to college (2005 grad), almost all my textbooks were optional. A couple friends and I usually pooled our money and bought one to share, which was great for Midterms/Finals, since we studied together anyway. The books I actually kept were things like SICP, which were cheaper to begin with. I wonder at what point the online editions of these books become so detailed that they compete with the University course itself. A lot of them already do all the grunt work for the Professor (giving quizzes/hw and grading them). All you have to do at that point is get accredited and make some kind of exam system and you have a substitute for the actual class. $209 seems awfully pricey for a book, but not too bad for an intro course in Biology. And frankly, your intro courses are ripe to be taken over the net, because they are already given in anonymous lecture halls with 1000 people in them. Imagine some student showing up in the Dean's office with her transcript from Prentice Hall, showing off her 4.0 in online courses and ready to dive into her major as a Junior.

silencio 18y ago
I'm looking into transferring to a university to finish my BSc in computer science (dropped out of HS, went to a community college), and all the ones I've looked into usually had some sort of cap on the number and type of online classes you were allowed to take. Unfortunately. I would not mind taking nothing but online classes for most intro classes where hands-on stuff was either not necessary (like..CS?) or where you only had to actually show up to class for a lab (like chem, bio, anatomy..). That being said, I took online classes because it let me slack off and then still get an A in the class, but it actually took more effort to get the A because of the extra work to prove I wasn't just showing up to take exams. But the timing was more convenient for me. Sooo..

silencio 18y ago

I'm looking into transferring to a university to finish my BSc in computer science (dropped out of HS, went to a community college), and all the ones I've looked into usually had some sort of cap on the number and type of online classes you were allowed to take. Unfortunately. I would not mind taking nothing but online classes for most intro classes where hands-on stuff was either not necessary (like..CS?) or where you only had to actually show up to class for a lab (like chem, bio, anatomy..). That being said, I took online classes because it let me slack off and then still get an A in the class, but it actually took more effort to get the A because of the extra work to prove I wasn't just showing up to take exams. But the timing was more convenient for me. Sooo..