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A comment on Clayton Christensen: Half of U.S. colleges will be bankrupt in 10 to 15 years. Parent comment

Re:Clayton Christensen: Half of U.S. colleges will be bankru... by pc86 on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @12:19PM (#17910152)
Why are the deadlines at an online school any less real than those at a physical school?
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Re:Clayton Christensen: Half of U.S. colleges will be bankru... by throwawayjava on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @12:23PM (#17910188)
> Why are the deadlines at an online school any less real than those at a physical school?

I'm not in education atm but have a lot of experience working with students.

This is a real psychological effect even if it's maybe hard for tech types to understand. I think it has to do with the fact that social pressure is avoidable online (you don't have to show up and face the teacher whose work you didn't do). That perception has a strong effect on students; they feel shame for not doing their work even when teachers don't really give a damn about whether they did their homework/project.

Maybe not impossible to overcome, but a real problem. Education disruptors ignore these sorts of strong psychological effects around education at their own peril...

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Re:Clayton Christensen: Half of U.S. colleges will be bankru... by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @12:48PM (#17910458)
It's the anonymity of a large university classroom that makes it possible to feel like it's acceptable to stop attending - my best attended classes were those where the professor knew my name. I imagine there would be worse absenteeism in online courses.
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Re:Clayton Christensen: Half of U.S. colleges will be bankru... by projectramo on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @12:29PM (#17910244)
The deadlines are just as real, but the adherence to those deadlines is quite different.

From my personal experience the difference is night and day. And not just for college courses vs online courses, but even for casual offline courses vs online courses.

The data apparently reflects my personal experience. I can't find any of the (numerous) studies I had seen before, but this link alludes to them:

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2...

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Re:Clayton Christensen: Half of U.S. colleges will be bankru... by spyspy on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @12:26PM (#17910222)
It's not real until you're sprinting through the dark basement of an old building trying to find the right door to slip your essay under by the 7am cutoff. But seriously I agree, almost everything is handed in electronically now anyway.
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