Education System: Getting Better or Worse?

November 26th, 2008 in Opinion

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While post-secondary education is definitely getting more expensive, I have a feeling that the quality and berth of the information isn’t increasing at the same rate as the cost.

What are people paying for when they typically go to college or university? Throwing thousands of dollars at schools that have become cities themselves, are students being lost in the increasing madness?

Attending some classes, I felt like I was nothing more than a face in the crowd while my professors lectured to hundreds of people in large lecture halls that required many speakers to project his or her voice to the far rows. I almost got vertigo looking down at the small stage that was used for presentations.

As a technology enthusiast, I found the computer system the University used to be ingenious, but also slower than molasses as they were all dumb terminals connected to massive servers, and during certain times of the day, it slowed to a crawl and experienced many interesting glitches, crashes and freeze-ups.

The facilities, while immense were quickly aging, and there were noticeable issues in many buildings as they grew older. New buildings were popping up at the outside edge of the campus, and parking sprawled on endlessly. It took on average ten minutes to walk from the parking lot to the edge of the campus buildings. Another five minutes and I could get to most of the buildings for my courses.

So after commuting an hour through the city, as the campus was nearly downtown, I also had to walk another half an hour a day to attend my early morning classes. Sure, that could have somehow soured my opinion, but I felt like year after year, the quality of my education was falling, rather than rising.

Facilities, teachers, technology, and rising costs have all lead to what feels more like a business versus a school, and I never felt fully prepared for the world that awaited me on the other end of graduation.

Not everything is horrible though. Many of my professors were quick to start using the school’s web facilities to connect with us in new ways, and push out lecture slides, important notes and other learning material that helped me understand the kind of information that they were looking for in testing and going forward.

Schools are changing, and some will say for the worse, others will say for the better. I am still very hopeful that education will improve, but it seems like as the number of things we need to learn grows, the quality and personal attention needed to transfer that knowledge decline.

What are your views on the post-secondary educational system? Are Colleges and Universities doing better year over year in preparing students for the current working conditions of the world, or are they falling ever further behind?

1

Don Kassner States

November 26th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

In a recent report published by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education (http://www.highereducation.org/reports/iron_triangle/index.shtml), college presidents spoke about costs, access, and the quality of higher education. The consensus in the report was that college presidents viewed those three aspects as an Iron Triangle – dependent upon one another and impossible to break.

After reading the report, it is clear that folks in traditional education just aren’t getting it. The report admitted that the public views most traditional colleges as extremely inefficient and not focused on students. Institutions appear to care more about innovations, research, community service, and sports – and less and less about students and education.

It shouldn’t be that difficult. The three arms of the triangle can be broken apart and re-assembled into a model that is extremely low cost, provides easy access (due to the cost) to almost all interested students, and can be of high quality as well. The key to this model is to realize that education does not have to be delivered in a traditional campus-based environment with a One-Size-Fits-All curriculum.

Today’s advanced society needs flexible education that is mobile and tailored to fit individual learning styles. We need flexible curriculum – and we need to develop communities of faculty and students, who are the real stakeholders of education.

All of this can be done with technology tools that are available today. The 21st century model of business relies on user experience and partnership revenue streams. Develop a group of like-minded users, connect them in a meaningful way, and provide them with tools to lift them up and beyond – all of this can be done at a very low cost and with very high quality.

So…what we really need to do is to apply this 21st century model to education. Let’s pull groups of like-minded students together; give them the tools to develop their skills; provide them with quality faculty to guide and mentor them; and provide both students and faculty with opportunities to access those services that they need. Well, my friends – we at Andrew Jackson University have this scenario figured out and are paving the way. AJU students get a top-notch educational experience using the tools which we provide. Our faculty avoid the perils of campus-based politics and can focus on their passion – teaching. All of this, at a cost that is extremely low – and a value that is through the roof.

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