Dr. David M. Glassman,
Bradley University’s Provost
and Vice President for Academic
Affairs, doesn’t see danger on the
horizon.
“
I don’t consider the emer-
gence of MOOCs a threat in
destroying higher education as
we know it, but rather a new
source of delivering certain forms
of educational material to large
audiences without the tremen-
dous benefits of a student being
immersed in the university expe-
rience,” he said. “The advance-
ment of teaching technology
over the past decade has greatly
improved the viability and qual-
ity of online learning, yet it works
best as a tool of instruction within
the contextual environment of a
traditional four-year university
rather than as an alternative to
it. An education solely made up
of online coursework misses an
extraordinary and vital part of
the university experience that is
essential for developing skills in
leadership, communication, col-
laboration, problem solving and
others important for professional
and personal success.”
An economist and skeptic of
online education said he regards
the trend as just a cheap way
to impart minimum skills to
maximize bottom lines. Author
Richard D. Wolff, Professor
of Economics Emeritus at the
University of Massachusetts-
Amherst, recently wrote that
online courses are “a wondrously
cheap way to provide just that
minimum technical skill-level”
required by multinational corpo-
rations.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
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