The US desperately needs an open university. Not “free” but open and very inexpensive. There is no reason that great online courses at the bachelor’s level can’t be offered for $100 to $125 for a three credit hour course with a degree attainable for $5000. Look at the “Dummies” books offered by Wiley. Every book is a first-rate overview of a subject and they are available with a dvd for $40. There are your textbook publishers. The Great Courses are another example of superior content by stone-cold experts produced at reasonable cost. There are your professors. Get those two companies together with a couple of computer gurus and a staff of people in an air conditioned warehouse in Kansas and you’ve got yourself an open university of the United States-and a much-needed disruption of a corrupt and inefficient system.
I hope the university succeeds in making the world better. I hope the university starts a top-notch scientific journal (or two, or three) that abolishes peer review.
The US desperately needs an open university. Not “free” but open and very inexpensive. There is no reason that great online courses at the bachelor’s level can’t be offered for $100 to $125 for a three credit hour course with a degree attainable for $5000. Look at the “Dummies” books offered by Wiley. Every book is a first-rate overview of a subject and they are available with a dvd for $40. There are your textbook publishers. The Great Courses are another example of superior content by stone-cold experts produced at reasonable cost. There are your professors. Get those two companies together with a couple of computer gurus and a staff of people in an air conditioned warehouse in Kansas and you’ve got yourself an open university of the United States-and a much-needed disruption of a corrupt and inefficient system.
I hope the university succeeds in making the world better. I hope the university starts a top-notch scientific journal (or two, or three) that abolishes peer review.