Top US universities put their reputations online (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Sean Coughlan
BBC News education correspondent

This autumn more than a million students are going to take part in an experiment that could re-invent the landscape of higher education.

Some of the biggest powerhouses in US higher education are offering online courses - testing how their expertise and scholarship can be brought to a global audience.

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have formed a $60m (£38m) alliance to launch edX, a platform to deliver courses online - with the modest ambition of "revolutionising education around the world".

Sounding like a piece of secret military hardware, edX will provide online interactive courses which can be studied by anyone, anywhere, with no admission requirements and, at least at present, without charge.

With roots in Silicon Valley, Stanford academics have set up another online platform, Coursera, which will provide courses from Stanford and Princeton and other leading US institutions.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18191589





So ... how do you get paid to be a college professor now ?

A few dozen people will be able to record all the essential content, which can be copied, recopied and edited, and universitites will be left as nothing but server farms.

Byb-bye academe.

[RC]

1. Yeah, but think of the money they could charge.

[hughee99]

2. Pre-recorded videos aren't very good at Q & A.

Nor do they grade papers, publish academic works, or do research. Plus, someone has to write the essential content to be recorded in the first place. If professors are given "rights" (or at least partial rights) to recorded videos in the same sort way that music has writing and publishing rights, they should still be able to get paid, shouldn't they?