Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

Re:Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ ab... by DataDaoDe on Thursday April 30, 2020 @12:01PM (#23032334)

I've spent a fair amount of time and energy working and researching in this area. I'd agree with most of what you are saying. To point #1 I worked on a project that had almost the exact same design you mention (collaborate, git versioned edits of learning modules, etc.) - the biggest problem is the mounds and mounds of red tape and regulation that stifle any truly innovative solution. There are some movements for high school materials that are tackling parts of the problem (see: https://www.ck12.org/student/, https://www.khanacademy.org/), but it definitely needs to be on a much larger and national scale and extended to universities. I think, most all undergraduate courses could be done this way. If someone with enough leverage could ever push it through it would virtually completely remove textbook, materials, and lecture costs from the system and if done right, provide a treasure store of knowledge.

To #2 This is already a technique in education research its called flipped classrooms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom).

To #3, I'm sure there are organizational structures you could implement that would augment every students network - there's a lot of stuff from management science you could try out.

Overall though I found it extremely frustrating trying to innovate in education because you really need to be able to implement radical changes but there are so many regulations at every level that you have to creep forward, hoping for minor incremental improvements when what you need is complete system overhauls. This was extremely frustrating for me.

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Re:Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ ab... by elliekelly on Thursday April 30, 2020 @02:24PM (#23034219)

Could you describe some of the regulations you found burdensome? I work in regulatory compliance (in an unrelated field) and I’m wholly unfamiliar with the requirements for education.

A few months ago I saw a Lambda School tweet with a giant stack of regulatory filings and I’ve been wondering ever since why I don’t hear much about higher ed compliance. It isn’t one of the areas that immediately comes to mind when I think of “highly regulated industries” (banking, insurance, healthcare, etc) but perhaps it should be.

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Re:Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ ab... by basch on Thursday April 30, 2020 @12:11PM (#23032473)

with regard to 2, thats why i used the word flip. i dont think my 1 or 2 are that unique, a lot of it is dreaming of a khan+git+wikipedia.

with regard to 3, i think the larger question is, is that what is best for society? to create elite clubs based on who you know vs merit, capability, output volume etc.

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Re:Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ ab... by DataDaoDe on Thursday April 30, 2020 @01:08PM (#23033226)

> is that what is best for society? to create elite clubs based on who you know vs merit, capability, output volume etc.

I don't know if finding ways to expand someone's network and connections necessarily means we have to create elite clubs - having networks is vital to success in any way, especially in a system based on merit.

So maybe I was one step ahead of what you were saying. I read it as more along the lines of given the entire set of X people in our education systems, how do we ensure a system that is fair and allows for the maximal human flourishing of each individual member while taking into account our psychology and the negative externalities / side-effects of emergent system dynamics. (Of course this last point, is something we sorely need in many fields - not just education).

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