4 ms·

One possible cause not mentioned in the article is that universities offer/require more filler courses. Last year, for example, I had to teach an intro to HTML

One possible cause not mentioned in the article is that universities offer/require more filler courses. Last year, for example, I had to teach an intro to HTML course at a UC school. This is a required course for all non-engineering majors. To get an A, all you have to do is create a single html webpage using 10 different tags and 10 different css styles.[1] These courses are huge money makers for the university. I had 120 students in the lecture, and each student paid about $1000 to take that course. The course was a joke for 90% of the students, but they didn't care because they got their "easy A". In exchange, the university got a butt ton of cash. [1] This grading system was set by the department so that there wouldn't be "easy" and "hard" quarters to take the course.

edtechdev 11y ago
Yeah, Murray Sperber called it the “faculty-student non-aggression pact" - “Professors don’t ask much of their students and students don’t ask much of their professors". And a newer book called "Academically Adrift" found that students aren't learning much in college. How do they get away with all this? One explanation is the signaling theory of education. A degree (and the prestige/selectivity/reputation of the school and program) is a proxy (signal) for IQ plus an indicator of persistence (toughing it out to make it through a degree program).
- gavazzy 11y ago
  EconTalk has a great episode on this. "ryan Caplan of George Mason University and blogger at EconLog talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the value of a college education. Caplan argues that the extra amount that college graduates earn relative to high school graduates is misleading as a guide for attending college--it ignores the fact that a sizable number of students don't graduate and never earn that extra money. Caplan argues that the monetary benefits of a college education have a large signaling component rather than representing the value of the knowledge that's learned. Caplan closes by arguing that the subsidies to education should be reduced rather than increased." http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/04/bryan_caplan_on.html http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/04/bryan_caplan_on.htm...
- jackpirate 11y ago
  I think that's a completely different issue. In my experience, in the "real" cs courses, professors and students expect quite a bit from each other. It's just these filler classes that noone expects anything from each other because everyone knows they're a joke.

edtechdev 11y ago

Yeah, Murray Sperber called it the “faculty-student non-aggression pact" - “Professors don’t ask much of their students and students don’t ask much of their professors". And a newer book called "Academically Adrift" found that students aren't learning much in college. How do they get away with all this? One explanation is the signaling theory of education. A degree (and the prestige/selectivity/reputation of the school and program) is a proxy (signal) for IQ plus an indicator of persistence (toughing it out to make it through a degree program).

gavazzy 11y ago
EconTalk has a great episode on this. "ryan Caplan of George Mason University and blogger at EconLog talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the value of a college education. Caplan argues that the extra amount that college graduates earn relative to high school graduates is misleading as a guide for attending college--it ignores the fact that a sizable number of students don't graduate and never earn that extra money. Caplan argues that the monetary benefits of a college education have a large signaling component rather than representing the value of the knowledge that's learned. Caplan closes by arguing that the subsidies to education should be reduced rather than increased." http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/04/bryan_caplan_on.html http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/04/bryan_caplan_on.htm...
jackpirate 11y ago
I think that's a completely different issue. In my experience, in the "real" cs courses, professors and students expect quite a bit from each other. It's just these filler classes that noone expects anything from each other because everyone knows they're a joke.