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Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

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Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#41

Post by Dwolb »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #37
Dwolb wrote: post #15

What’s missing from all these online courses is a sense of community. The forums are ok but they’re not very vibrant. For an example of a vibrant community, I’d look toward what video games, such as Rocket League, have created. Players have a specific ranking based on competition stats. They level up when they when a sufficient number of games within their ranking. Progression through the game doesn’t have to be a so…

No doubt that the community around courses could be improved, but I think it's also a matter of enthusiasm. People are probably a lot more enthusiastic about Rocket League than about some online degree. (Whether that's how it should be is a different issue...) Anyway, that naturally leads to higher participation in communities etc. So I don't know if online course makers even have that much influence over community b…

For sure but then the question I would have is can we take cues from enthusiasm around Rocket League and bring those into the community?

The real time ranking system I think is the root of a lot of this. It allows people to know where they stand and they can look to the community on how to improve their game.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#42

Post by User23 »

ck425 wrote: post #35
dudul wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me of all this companies that were forcing employees to relocate because good work can only be done when everyone is seating in the open space for 9 hours every day. Suddenly, once this is not possible anymore, no biggy, just work from home! It's fine!

I don't know where you work but no one where I work considers the current situation fine. It's workable but it's definitely no where near 100%.

I like it because it disadvantages the politically competent types while advantaging the technically competent types. Guess which category I fall into.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#43

Post by motohagiography »

Depends on what you think of the value of school is. Given the distribution of outcomes and skills, the effect of a degree for the vast majority in the long tail of graduates is just tribal affiliation with the people who achieve in the upper percentiles. For most people, simply paying for the credential without attending classes would deliver most of the value. Traditionally, this was known as "purchasing a commission," (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_of_commissions_in_the...), and today we do the same thing with student debt.

Online classes may be a forcing function for the discussion of how to price education, but the question itself has been the elephant in the room for decades.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#44

Post by mymythisisthis »

What's missing from this discussion is a history of Universities. In the 19th century, as a student, you paid to be tutored by a professor to pass a standardized exam. Professors were paid by for tutoring. Profs were expected to teach classes, but were not paid for it. It was a means of recruiting students to tutor. Classes were also small, more like seminars.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#45

Post by rjkennedy98 »

game_the0ry wrote: post #29

A couple of years ago, I was looking into MOOCs for tech education, Udacity's nano degree in particular. I remember stumbling across a video on Youtube where some Udacity folks were discussing the merits of online education with college professors and admins. What stood out to me was how vehemently the college folks were against online education. They were visibly livid - there was no way substituting a live class ro…

Higher education so far as I can tell now is indistinguishable from a cult. You have to pay homage to various absurd beliefs, contribute money to them, and worship the value of it no matter what the apparent merit of it is, and more than anything it has its heresies which appear to be self-directed development and independent thinking.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#46

Post by harias »

motohagiography wrote: post #43

Depends on what you think of the value of school is. Given the distribution of outcomes and skills, the effect of a degree for the vast majority in the long tail of graduates is just tribal affiliation with the people who achieve in the upper percentiles. For most people, simply paying for the credential without attending classes would deliver most of the value. Traditionally, this was known as "purchasing a commissi…

Called signalling in economics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#47

Post by j0hnml »

eugenekolo wrote: post #38
M5x7wI3CmbEem10 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMSA/OMSCS worth it? I don’t want a résumé item that may be considered watered down in the future. Plus, with more self-study, can’t you can get into most tech companies because they tend to be more open?

Depending on your field a masters degree in anything is seen equivalent to every other masters degree. And on the other side of the spectrum, they're not considered useful by many employers/jobs.

While the mere presence of MS on a resume may not mean much to employers, I almost think it’s more important to weigh its usefulness against your current skill set. For instance, I work in tech but majored in something other than CS, and so I sometimes feel “weak” when I need to write more formal code. I’m going back to get my masters in CS so I can learn some of the foundational aspects that I unfortunately missed out on. I’m not as much concerned with fluffing my resume as I am filling the CS gaps I currently have.

Now if I did major in CS, I’m not sure I would still pursue a masters. But I didn’t, so there’s certainly value there for me.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#49

Post by f6v »

entha_saava wrote: post #10
Bx6667 wrote: post #9

Offline classes aren’t worth the cost of full tuition...

Classes are not worth the cost of full tuition.

I think people here sometimes are delusional about the prices of education since everything software-related has almost become a commodity. You can buy a Django/React/whatever course for 9.99 on Udemy. However, there’s an incredible amount of effort which goes into preparing courses in other disciplines.
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