In person classes are not worth the cost of full tuition.
Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
221–230 of 329 posts
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
My university was using Adobe Connect almost a decade ago. It is way better than video call apps like Zoom.
I couldn't disagree more. Connect is written in Flash and has serious stability issues. For better or for worse Zoom is stable and intuitive for adult learning.
I don't care to weigh in on any questions about how it's built. I also didn't experience any stability problems, but this was admittedly a while ago now, and the product may have subsequently taken a turn for the worse.
As far as the user experience goes, though, I would say that Adobe Connect makes it possible to create an online classroom in a way that just isn't possible in Zoom.
Which is in no way contradictory to the idea that Zoom is stable and intuitive for adult learning. "Adult learning" is a wide net that covers a lot of learning situations that do not necessarily involve or benefit from a classroom environment. YouTube and printed books are also stable and intuitive for adult learning.
But, for educators who are scrambling to adapt their pre-existing curricula to distance learning, I would argue that preserving as many elements as possible from the working environment that they're used to is pretty key to giving them the best chance possible at a successful transition.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Making money off housing will disproportionately affect students of differing income backgrounds Having trouble parsing this. What do you mean? IMO the problem is that many colleges are not focused on education to begin with. They compete with each other by building the most luxurious facilities, sports programs, and so forth. Then they pay execs crazy salaries while leaving the actual instructors in the dust: "Aud…
This is pretty much the same situation in every Fortune 500 company, is it not?
LOL. But this was supposed to be argument in regards to "General lack of funding for education"
Now you're stating what? That F500 companies have general lack of funding? So who has? Mom & Pop shop?
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I used to believe that argument, and then I worked in California. My effective tax rate in Canada was ~43% and my effective tax rate in California is 31%. Considering that tuition isn't free, healthcare isn't free and child care isn't free, I fail to see what that 31% goes to.
[deleted]
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#225It's a shame. I'd like to work on an online masters in engineering to supplement my bachelor's. The cost for 4 years of an online program that actually has relevant classes of interest is like $50k even with my company paying over $5k a year. That's rediculous. They try to sell it to me based off of the potential earnings it could lead to, but I'm already well established in my industry (capped out on the technical t…
Some schools offer non-degrees and/or the ability to audit a class. I can apply to be a non-degree student at the local college. Then audit a class for free (no credit/grades). The scope of auditing depends on the professor, I've had some that will grade coursework for non-degree students, others just let them into the lectures. Total cost would be like $25 + books.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#226A 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…
Except "embracing" is definitely not the right word. Very few professors I know are happy about this whole situation. Universities are begrudgingly accepting the fact that they can't have in-person classes, so they have to turn to online alternatives. Tuition can't be changed because the few costs that are being saved (facilities still need maintenance) are offset by the massive losses in revenue from student housing…
> Tuition can't be changed because (whatever)
Nope. What you're saying is "I cant restructure my business becasue I have high costs".
Your competitor disrupting your business could not care less.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#227I did an online MS at Georgia Tech. I paid full price tuition for the program. Literally 3 years after I graduated, they announced a slash in price by 80 (EIGHTY!) percent. The program was excellent, and if not for my company offering to pay for it I wouldn't have considered it. I can absolutely recommend it now that it's so much cheaper, but it was also designed to be a remote program from the start.
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?
If you are going to do OMSCS for a resume, I would say you are vastly underestimating it. Its a full fledged masters from a top 10 school and many classes require as much as 20 hours/week work sometimes. Its far from something watered down.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#228There's something about being on a campus that made a big difference for me in college. Some experiences that I had that are hard to replicate remotely include:
* Group discussions in seminars. When you are in person, there's a better dynamic to holding a discussion. You can read others' body language and see when to speak up. Zoom works fine for very small groups (* Impromptu chats after class with professors to ask questions that I don't want to bug everyone else with. Same goes for chats during office hours.
* The opportunity to stumble upon events that you otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to. For example, I'm not muslim, but I attended a series of lectures on Islam aimed at Muslim students, put on by the Muslim student association. I learned a lot there and got to speak to fellow students and learn about their views and experiences firsthand. You're not gonna find an event like that online, and even if you did, you'd have to have filtered through all the other garbage on the internet to find it.
* Playing intramural broomball after pre-gaming with my friends. Aside from good memories, the social connections you make in college are very important and can help you a lot later in life. Many years later and it's great having a network of people in all sorts of industries.
* Living in a freshman dorm and getting exposed to people from many different backgrounds for the first time in my life. If you grew up in one place, then almost by definition, you didn't have much diversity in K-12.
You can't really replicate these remotely and in my mind, these sorts of things were half the value of college for me. And this is aside from the fact that I personally find it very hard to pay attention on a zoom lecture, especially if I'm sitting through 4 or 5 of them a day.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#229The only thing that can really explain this is an elaborate form of price fixing between universities. If one university announced they were slashing "online-only" tuition costs, others would probably be forced to follow suit. It would be interesting to see a single reputable university drop tuition prices for "online-only", and offer automatic-transfer admittance to students already accepted into a similarly reputable school (e.g. if you go to Ohio State, you could quickly transfer to Penn State). That might trigger a race to the bottom, and reset tuition rates to what they rightfully should be.
The reduced revenue could be made up by cutting the unnecessary ivory-tower jobs, reducing the inflated exec compensation, and reducing the unnecessary $50M+ on-campus construction projects.
Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tuition costs are ridiculously inflated, and I'd love to see them come down, but "the same thing used to be cheaper" is an argument that doesn't work in any other field. I'd rather see a discussion of the inflation-adjusted rate of increase, or perhaps some other appropriately adjusted metric; tuition numbers would still look terrible, so there's no need to weaken one's argument this way.
That is inflation adjusted. Note "with all figures adjusted to reflect 2017 dollars"
Yes, you're quite right. I don't know how I missed that. Thanks!