How Much Might People Pay for a Free College Education?

Posted on November 3, 2008 by David Gray

UMassonline CEO David Gray Contrary to what you might expect me to believe, I’m not against organizations, institutions, or even fledgling start-up sites aiming to bring online education to people for free. There are a lot of people worldwide with learning interests that don’t hinge on earning a degree or certificate. But…

A recent article appearing in The Chronicle of Higher Education features a group of people attempting to forge… a whole new model of online education. It’s a noble, if not perhaps a somewhat starry-eyed effort: they are hoping college professors will sign up to teach for free; they’re wondering if the absence of traditional credits and degrees will cool students’ enthusiasm.

The real story to be found here is, in my opinion, in the comments left by readers. A handful assert that a free and open education for all is a foregone conclusion. There are some who argue the inevitability of this based on past cultural shifts of similar magnitude. But most seem to believe as I do: that there is still much to recommend the accredited institution; much to value in a current system that rewards the best faculty; that credit and degree validation, which is a keystone of the ‘old’ model, is virtually priceless.

Here’s an excerpt from just one comment:

Information has been plentiful and free since the advent of the printing press and the public library… Yet Americans do not flock to libraries to gain this free knowledge. The real value of universities in today’s society isn’t that they contain or crank out information — we have way-way more of that than we need or care to absorb. The real value of a university in a dispersed modern society is that it serves to “certify” or “verify” that information has led to knowledge (in theory).

Another commenter points out the parallel to MIT’s Open Courseware initiative, which has been publishing MIT’s world class course materials online since 2002. But, there is a reason why MIT doesn’t charge for the over 1,800 courses for which content is now accessible online. The reason students pay top dollar for an MIT education isn’t simply for the content; it’s for the credential that MIT provides at the end of an academic program that attests to the individual student’s mastery of the content. It’s for the opportunity to interact with the professors who are the ultimate content masters. The value doesn’t attach to mere access to the information. That, however, is just my opinion.

It’s a good debate. There are worthy elements in most, if not all, of the varying positions. I hope if you read the piece and have a comment to share, you’ll feel welcome to share it here.

Comments

One Response to “How Much Might People Pay for a Free College Education?”

Anonymous on November 6th, 2008 10:20 am

College education is more about collaborative learning, making connections and vetting of knowledge than the actual information that one finds in Books.

While I have for instance read many books on information science, data categorization and organization, cataloguing and knowledge management, I do not have a degree in Library Science. The fact that no one has vetted me as a librarian (by conferring a degree) means that I won’t be able to be employed by a library as a librarian no matter what my knowledge and talents are.

Some professions, such as business, are more open to personal experience, work experience and knowledge gained on your own. I think that as a society we should reward people who take initiative to learn something new on their own - whether they took classes with a distinguished professor or if they went to the librarian, read a few books and put the knowledge into practice shouldn’t matter. What matters is the journey, not the particular road you travel.

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