(From Minding the Campus):
“Liberating Liberal Education”
By Thomas K. Lindsay
Peter Lawler’s “The Downside of MOOCified Disruption” challenges my op-ed, “Confronting MOOC Melancholy.” Let’s start where he and I apparently agree, and see where the logos leads.
First, I argue in my piece that higher education suffers from watered-down standards and ideologically-driven instruction. Lawler agrees, writing, “Political correctness has corrupted the humanities and social sciences.”
Second, higher education is growing increasingly unaffordable. Tuitions nationwide have jumped 400 percent in the past quarter-century. To keep pace, students have taken on historic debt ($1.1 trillion).
Third, and most important, Lawler agrees with me that most students have little choice between face-to-face instruction and online learning. Instead, the bulk of courses taught in the first two years at most universities takes place not in discussion-driven seminars but in lecture halls attended by hundreds.
At this point we diverge, and the divergence is instructive. READ MORE HERE