That's what the Australian Courier-Mail foresees. A tip o' the hat to our Australian reader Andrew for sending me the link to the article.
The future of face-to-face learning at Australia’s universities is in serious doubt as more institutions ditch old-school lectures in favour of full online or hybrid learning models.
While some students and staff are campaigning to save lectures from the chopping block, others in the sector say the train has already left the station and the future of universities is online as students “vote with their feet”.
The face-to-face debate reared its head again recently as Adelaide University students and staff protested what they claimed was a move away from in-person learning at Australia’s newest university – a claim the university continues to deny.
Meanwhile, Open University Australia helps potential students connect with more than 890 online degrees in response to changing student preferences.
University of South Queensland (USQ) Associate Professor Alice Brown has researched and written on the challenges and opportunities of online higher education learning, finding the ultimate determiner is the students themselves who routinely “vote with their feet”.
“There is a trend and phenomena of students becoming increasingly discerning about how they want to study and when they want to study,” Professor Brown said.
“If they are not offered an online option, then they will vote with their feet and go to courses that are fully online.”
. . .
The debate comes as a number of Victorian universities are now offering digital-only lectures, with most choosing not to reintroduce in-person models post-Covid.
RMIT environmental engineering student Ted Oldis, 24, said attending his university in-person was a toss-up decision he makes daily.
“If you’re trying to juggle work, friends and study you have to balance the convenience of the online lectures with attending in-person,” he said.
“If you don’t need the social aspect and you think the learning is the same, it honestly comes down to convenience, and more often than not it’s easier to do the online learning.”
Mr Oldis said he had toyed with attending as many lectures and tutorials as possible in-person this semester.
“This semester I made a conscious decision to attend every class and lecture I can in-person,” he said.
“I wanted to try to engage more and meet new people. But to be honest, I don’t feel it’s been worth it compared to doing the same stuff online.”
There's more at the link.
I have every sympathy with those students who are avoiding in-person classes and focusing instead on online and distance education. I hold four university qualifications, two of which I obtained through distance education only (i.e. by post) and two by part-time evening classes plus distance education. I can't say I felt in any way short-changed by not having the full "campus experience" of a full-time education. In fact, the professors in my Masters degree often said to us students that they preferred working with us as opposed to full-time students, because we'd already learned to fend for ourselves and earn a living, and didn't expect the world to provide everything to us on a platter. Comparing ourselves to the self-centered idle twits who infested that campus' post-graduate programs, it wasn't hard to see why they came to that conclusion.
Looking at the pro-Palestinian protests across many US universities over the past couple of years simply makes the contrast even starker. The only reason those students could carry on so irresponsibly (not to mention violently) is that they had parents and trust funds and bursaries to pay for their existence while they did so. The rest of us, who have to work for a living, may want to protest in favor of causes we support, but we can't afford to do so nearly as often or as long, because we know that our employers will kick us out and hire replacements who'll be willing to earn every dollar they pay us. We've grown up. Most of those students haven't.
I think American higher education would be a lot better off if we got rid of at least half the campuses in this country and fired all the professors who live in their academic cloud cuckoo land instead of in the real world. I'd also suggest that we fire every student who doesn't pass at least half their courses every year. No do-overs, no accommodations, no touchy-feely wishy-washy excuses. Unless there are truly exceptional circumstances to excuse them, they can pass, or get out. Why should my tax dollars be wasted on supporting them?
Grrr . . .
Peter
3 comments:
Won't be long before Max Headroom is given a professorship.
No, really, you don't think AI is going to totally replace these over-paid eggheads with their own opinions?
The State will not allow it! Expect all state university systems to start implementing non-teacher classes and degree programs first, tenured state employee's are expensive to retire with those pension funds and what-all.
I, too, got a degree via distance education. I read where a study had been done and distance learners were at a minimum equal to in-person learners due to motivation. It seems if you're going to struggle for an education you're going to take it seriously.
When my daughter went to college it seemed they marketed themselves on everything but the quality of education. Having people working a day job and getting an education at night would revolutionize education.
"I'd also suggest that we fire every student who doesn't pass at least half their courses every year."
When I was a fresher you had to pass two-thirds or you were out. In our third year it was not enough to pass: a narrow pass saw you given a lesser degree and a fond farewell. You had to pass handsomely to be admitted to fourth year.
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