One of the greatest advantages of being an undergraduate like me is that you
can claim to be an undergraduate from anywhere. I can, for example, say that I’m
an undergraduate from MIT, which doesn’t sound legally very wrong, though of
course, I find it better to claim that I have a PhD from an imaginary institute
called SHINE–The Sherlock Holmes Institute for Natural Eminence.
Jokes apart, education is undergoing some good changes with the advent of
online education. The field might show some promise if some issues are properly
handled.
For one thing, there is a great scope for making money. Online universities
can actually charge–and more importantly, make the user feel that he is
actually getting his money’s worth–for their content, which is educational
courses.
Another thing is economy. Many people may not have the money to go to the US
for further studies, and may be forced to settle for less in India. But if a
good online course is made available from the likes of Harvard, they would
happily lap it up.
The greatest by far is the change in perception of education. Consider that a
particular university has 500 seats and 5,000 apply. Since the university doesn’t
have 5,000 seats, it does what it can best possibly do–which is, eliminate
4,500 students so that the remaining 500 get seats.
This is the most grotesque possible implementation of Sherlock Holmes’
famous Theory of Elimination, which, as per The Sign of Four states,
"Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the
truth."
An online university can get rid of this problem because it doesn’t have
any concept of actual physical seats for students.
But problems still remain. A major one is the lack of collaboration. Just as
most e-shoppers complain that shopping on the web lacks experience, the lack of
collaboration with fellow students can hurt online education. Of course, over
time, this can be sorted out–if for example, Harvard has an electronic course,
which has over 10,000 students, then students in geographic proximity can be
given group projects. If there are 500 students from Bangalore, they can
interact and better themselves.
Guest lectures are another important area. Many lecturers, keen on shifting
from the offline to the online, would gladly offer everything over e-mail, which
would be bad. While e-mail is a great way of communication, it lacks the
personal touch, and at times causes great headaches, especially fomenting
communication gaps. Regular face-to-face interactions with visiting faculty
should definitely make the online experience a greater one.
And needless to say, the people who will dominate will be the current breed–the
Harvards and the IITs who have built their core competencies in the education
business for a long time. This is similar to the way the old economy favorites
are now slowly moving up and making their mark in the online world of business.
Parthian shot
In The Adventure of the Red Circle, Sherlock Holmes says, "Education
never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the
last." This is the true meaning of education–one that continues, and also
continues to last.
One must also remember that when the first movies came, they were no more
than filmed plays. Gradually, however, this industry has grown, and produced
remarkable special effects, and shown spectacular happenings. Online education
is in a similar place today. Right now, it is in the shadows of its bigger
brother, brick and mortar universities. But when it finally emerges from the
shadows, it will have the potential to change education, as we know it today.
And then, maybe, just maybe, I will attempt my own graduation.
Balaji N The views expressed here are
those of the author