The new WVU budget slashes nearly 10 percent of majors and 7 percent of all faculty—but students and staff aren't going down without a fight.
  • hexi [they/them]@hexbear.net
    81·
    1 year ago

    Colleges act like Scientology in the states. Equating education with how much money you’ve handed them.

    Meanwhile anything can be learned online, but it counts for nothing because corporations treat purchases credentials as the only legitimate form of “education”.

    • Jim@programming.devEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Ah yes, I’m sure the formal training received by doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, and engineers is just an over-hyped “education” that can all be replaced by online MOOCs.

      There are real problems with education, especially with the costs, but “anything can be learned online” is the worst take I’ve heard in a long while.

        • Jim@programming.devEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Just because you can get part of your education remotely or through self-learning didn’t mean “anything can be learned online”.

          And if you were hiring a math tutor for your kid, would you prefer a self-proclaimed expert from watching YouTube videos or would you want someone who got a degree from a credentialed university? And even if you don’t care, why are you surprised that others would be skeptical of the YouTube expert?

          Remote learning can be fine for some things, and self learning through informal channels are also fine, but it’s not a full on replacement for formal education in all cases.

        • Sinonatrix [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          21·
          1 year ago

          For one, you can have a second screen and Google the answers. It’s a little bit harder in person.

          I’d really like to see a system of online learning where extension offices are built out into testing center networks. This still disenfranchises people sadly, but staves off some existential questions about what passing an exam even means now.

          • hexi [they/them]@hexbear.net
            32·
            1 year ago

            I’ve seen people cheat in person, too. Many in-person classes assign everything as homework which means people can still look up the answers at home.

            If this is the issue, a proctored midterm and final are the answer for remote learners. One or two in person test sessions, just for an hour or two to verify they really know it.

            There’s no reason schools need to charge $100K for that. I can stay at a cafe for an hour for $10. Throw in the proctor, split amongst all test takers, and the grading and a class could be $50.

      • Sinonatrix [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        01·
        1 year ago

        Anything can be learned online, with enough drive and determination

        But if you’re that powerful: why bother learning from others? You could simply leave and create your own community called name’s Gulch.

        • Jim@programming.devEnglish
          5·
          1 year ago

          No sorry, that’s just fundamentally false. You can’t just learn titration techniques from watching a video. You can’t learn phlebotomy without an instructor watching you do it to a patient. Hell, you aren’t learning how to drive a car from playing a video game.

          And I’m not sure where you are pulling the “if you are that powerful” from. You really have an ax to grind don’t you.