US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High

Re:US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High by wiremine on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @07:33PM (#14363730)

> The problem is the career value of a degree has not diminished, it's a bit of a network effect really. Maybe people can get hired from Coursera certificates, I would certainly consider it if I was a hiring manager.

A university degree tells me three things a Coursera certificate doesn't:

1. A graduate have more breadth and depth in a given major. Standford's CS course includes math, physics, engineering, programming theory, data structures, algorithms, etc. (Just picked Stanford's program at random, not advocating they're perfect)

2. A graduate has exposure to multiple topics/subjects, and hopefully has some critical thinking skills. A Coursera cert doesn't do that.

3. Somebody graded them. It wasn't some massive online system.

Maybe other people don't care about these things, but as a former manager, I've found these qualities produce a better well rounded individual in the workplace. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but that's my experience.

To your point: All these things can be replaced, but I'd argue micro-degrees don't do that.

I do hope this is solved: The price is crazy.

[1] http://csmajor.stanford.edu/Requirements.shtml

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Re:US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High by martalist on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @08:20PM (#14363970)

I can't argue with #3 - some MOOC graders are particularly terrible, too.

However, there's nothing to stop a person studying just as many topics/subjects online, and to cover them in about as much depth.

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Re:US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High by wiremine on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @10:03PM (#14364349)

I agree. However, there's not a good way to compare apples to apples like there is with a university education. Maybe that's the next step: having these MOOCs come up with some competing standards...

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Re:US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High by martalist on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @10:49PM (#14364499)

Yes and no. Many of the MOOCs provided by the likes of MIT, Stanford, Berkley, etc, are not watered down. For lesser known providers the quality of content is less certain.

I think a standard in terms of grading would be a huge win.

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Re:US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High by tonyedgecombe on Thursday May 18, 2017 @09:03AM (#14366823)

I studied mathematics with the Open University in the UK, what I found is graduates of traditional universities frequently find ways to disparage the OU despite it having a rigorous curriculum and requiring a great deal of effort and discipline from its students.

I'm not saying that is what you are doing but it does seem to have hints of it.

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