Unimpressed by online classes, college students file lawsuits for refunds

I remember wondering aloud at MIT/Harvard putting their courses online for free for anyone to listen to, and saying, well what is the value add then of paying to physically go to college?

I guess we're going to find out whether the networking, friends, social aspect is worth it. There's also something about the competitive aspect of seeing other people in person do better than you or have better ideas than you. Which is hard virtually.

That being said, the college experience has gone through events like wars, plague, disruption, etc, and has come back before. (Although not at a time when there was such a ready alternative technology at hand.) I'm not yet so worried as some say (wholesale change to the higher education model), unless this goes on for 2-3 years.

As much as I wish it were better, most online courses offered by universities do not come close to the in-person experience. Their real goal/outcome is to increase access.

Professors are trained (most at least) to teach in-person and have assignments and curriculums that match. They can't redo that appropriately to be equally effective within a week or two. Few could do it well given over a year doing online only.

Tools are being built and the experience will improve thanks to this global reset.

Education is a space that hasn't really been disrupted ever. Definitely isn't happening within a few weeks.

Why ask for a refund of a flight you were promised that isn't happening or could give you a disease that you could pass to your family?

Even in extreme times, if you pay for something but get something other than what you were promised, adjustments need to be made.

The deal has been altered. They paid for in-person instruction and interaction with a professor and classmates, as well as numerous amenities and facilities, all of which contribute to the college experience. All of which comes at a hefty premium. Instead, they got online instruction, which is less valuable (even when it comes to tuition prices), and typically involves little to no instruction or interaction with a live professor. A partial refund does not seem incredibly unreasonable, except that universities may not be able to afford it.

Why not just refund and let them enroll after the lockout? It seems like creating IOUs for this stuff is just gonna make it more complicated and prone to errors. If I put myself in their shoes, I would certainly prefer a refund now.

Students have lesser avenues to obtain financing than universities; I imagine it’s more important to allow students to keep their finances in order rather than the university (which can access Government grants, PPP loans and apply for other kinds of relief. For those with endowments, they can dip into those funds too)