Advertisment

Online Education

author-image
DQI Bureau
New Update

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.

Advertisment

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.

Advertisment

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.

Advertisment

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.

Advertisment

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

Advertisment