And here I am in Belgium, paying 2000 a year for a Masters degree.
Also, half your paycheck goes to the government and European tech salaries are nearly half that of the US. There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
51–60 of 329 posts
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#52Depends 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)
I'd argue signalling is the effect, where the tribal initiation is the mechanism and purchasing a commission is the example precedent, but we're certainly in the same realm of ideas.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#53Earlier 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 am enjoying working from home, many of my coworkers too. I'd probably say it's 50/50 here
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#54The issue is that some of the most valuable experiences and learning comes from in-person interactions with the professor in classroom and with classmates on campus. Purely online classes completely ignore this aspect of learning. Granted we can't do in-person interaction in the current environment, but surely we could give it more thought . The current online classes focus on only delivering the lecture as opposed to encourage learning.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#55I think it depends on what you think an academic degree gets you.
If you are looking for education, it may be worth it.
If you are looking for the signal to employers, it may be worth it as long as they don’t water down the reputation by admitting more students and employers don’t devalue it for being online.
If you are looking for connections, networking, and resume building opportunities, then it is definitely not worth it.
My problem is that the benefits I got from university were nearly all in the two latter areas.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
What was the difference that yielded the positive experience?
To an approximation, the entire user interface and everything about how it worked. Edit: A more wordy response, since I assume the downvote implies that wasn't satisfying -- It has all the key elements - video chat, screen sharing, whiteboarding, etc., but they've all been arranged in such a different way that it's just impossible to single anything out in particular. The best I could do is explain it by analogy: Mos…
well, that doesn't tell anything.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#57Online teaching works particularly well for the tutorial model, where you have a small number (<5) of students plus the instructor engaged in discussion. It fails completely for large classes. That's not dissimilar to the situation before the plague.
> It fails completely for large classes.
Large in-person classes you don't even have discussions. Some universities have lecture halls of 400-600 students, and you have to go ask a TA for help later in the week
> That's not dissimilar to the situation before the plague.
So I think you agree and are saying that it's the same?
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#58Collage in general has never been about education. Collage is about getting a stamp on your head saying that you have been to collage. Meaning that you spend years learning a bunch of stuff and you didn't do stop shit to kicked out.
I guess for engineering where there is significant equipment necessary this doesn't hold.
But the majority of collage is pointless, all the knowledge you need is available outside of collage but then nobody can verify that you actually learned it.
This book is pretty hard hitting but it provides a lot of solid analysis about what the problem is:
The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I think a real time ranking system for students at a university that is visible by all is just going to be targeted for greedy or ambitious people looking to convert it into jobs or money.
If I am in the top 10 percent of the rankings in Rocket League sure I can make a few grand streaming, but if I am in the top 10 percent of rankings at a school I can get a better job than the rest. What are the bottom 90 percent's motivation for helping people improve at that point?
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#60Offline classes not worth the cost of tuition.