I recently read an article on Mashable about the social media impact on the higher education system and how we can see an increased online presence in about eight years. According to the article, experts believe that the education system as we know it will shift drastically towards an online presence and the traditional setting of the classroom will become digital.
I recently read an article on Mashable about the social media impact on the higher education system and how we can see an increased online presence in about eight years. According to the article, experts believe that the education system as we know it will shift drastically towards an online presence and the traditional setting of the classroom will become digital.
No longer will college students have to trek to Statistics 101 at 8 am! College students can now wear pajamas to class and NOT look ridiculous! While most colleges will form a hybrid between online classes and physical class attendance, we can expect some schools to transition into complete online institutions.
With an online presence, colleges can be more proactive with their student body. Conducting social media marketing on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook colleges can advertise their bookstore sales or promote literary magazines. Class sizes can become more manageable and assignments can be easily traced online. Colleges that have embraced the technological revolution might have seen an increase in enrollment as well as a new breed of thinkers emerging from their ranks.
With more and more colleges joining social media platforms and increasing the use of technology in the classroom, the idea of removing the classroom itself from the educational equation does not seem that far of a stretch. My thoughts around a classless institution revolve around the cost. If there is no building to go to, no parking to fight for and no cafeteria to eat at, how will this affect the cost of tuition? Would the shift from the classroom to home decrease the cost of college tuition?
With a tremendous level of student loan debt and the rising costs of tuition, you’d be a genius to sign up for the online college that costs a fraction of such schools as Harvard or Yale. The Internet is a fountain of information which anyone and everyone can access at any time so why not channel it through a university? A college degree can be completely earned online at the University of Phoenix and even graduation can be attended from the comfort of your own home. With such an efficient process why wouldn’t the cost go down?
Like anything else, the size of a product, the portion of a meal or the quality of merchandise might decrease but rising costs cannot be disregarded. There is less to be had and more to spend and quite frankly I do not think that the elimination of the class room will bring down the student tuition rates. I can guarantee that an individual could earn a four year degree off of YouTube and know more than a Harvard grad. The truth of the matter is this: a degree in YouTube videos will never equate to a $100,000 Harvard diploma. Most employers are impressed with not only if you can do your job but the kind of price tag your education has attached to it.
While we all would like to believe that the common sense of cutting back would lead to lower costs, the reality is that colleges are a business and good businesses make money. I hope that in twenty years when my daughter is about to attend college the cost of her education is minimal but I am sure like anything else I’ll be sweating bullets when the student loan bills come in.
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