[AISWorld] Georgia Tech offers a $6, 600 Master's Degree in Computer Science

Mon May 27 19:26:59 EDT 2013

Well put!! And therein lies the key to survival for universities.

John

On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 5:25 PM, Ilia Bider <ilia at ibissoft.se> wrote:

>  Leon,
>
> What is the problem with this trend? I cannot see any, as long as
> educators are serious when designing and conducting on-line courses.
> Education is not disappearing :-) , it just takes different forms :-(.
>
> --Ilia
> On 2013-05-27 19:28, Kappelman, Leon wrote:
>
>  *Dennis K. Berman<http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213114599&authType=name&authToken=Xtq2&goback=%2Empd2_*1_*1_*1_*1_%2F20130524203941*5213114599*5the*56*5600*5master*5s*5degree&trk=mp-ph-pn>
> *
>
> *Business Editor of the Wall Street Journal*
>
> *The $6,600 Master's Degree*
>
> May 24, 2013 ****
>
> There comes a time in every concept's life when the
> thing...actually...happens.****
>
> If you're reading this post, you probably already have some familiarity
> with all the jostling going on in the education business. You know, for
> instance, that a number of companies are experimenting with MOOCs<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course>(Massive Open Online Courses), tablet-based
> learning <http://mashable.com/2013/03/06/classroom-tablets/>, and all
> kinds of in-school networking and Big Data analytics.****
>
> And then came last week's announcemen<http://blog.udacity.com/2013/05/sebastian-thrun-announcing-online.html>
> t.****
>
> Georgia Tech, one of the nation's best engineering schools, said it would
> begin offering fully-accredited, real-world master's degrees in computer
> science via the Internet. The cost: About $6,600. Or roughly the cost of a
> few years of *interest* that many graduate students pay on a big loan to
> fund their education.****
>
> Here is the key line from the *The Wall Street Journal<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324031404578483670125295836.html>
> '*s take on the program:****
>
> The upfront costs to create the online lectures run between $200,000 and
> $300,000, but once those hard outlays have been made the cost per each
> additional student is minimal, said Mr. Isbell. He estimated the school
> would have to hire one full-time teacher for every 100 online students as
> opposed to one full-time teacher for every 10 or 20 students who study on
> campus.****
>
> The description made me recall my freshman political science class in the
> mid-1990s, held in a dusty auditorium in West Philadelphia, a bow-tied
> professor reading his erudite, but canned, lecture to a few hundred
> freshmen.****
>
> *Looking back on it now, this experience had far more in common with the
> Middle Ages than the world of 2013.* What's the difference between
> watching a lecture in an auditorium and watching HD-quality video in one's
> living room or beach cabana?****
>
> From there it's not that hard to question the cost of a standard master's
> degree, which all-in can cost $50,000 to $60,000 per year. Even if the
> experience is not the same, the *value for money* from the $6,600 degree
> appears at first blush, superior.****
>
> For people in business, there's plenty to take away here. It's easy to use
> the old trope - disruption - but put that aside for a moment.****
>
> The thought exercise I've been going through is this: What's the
> proverbial *$6,600 Master's Degree* in your industry? And what would
> happen to your industry if it happened *now* rather than in the murky
> future? It's a fun and sometimes harrowing game to play.****
>
> Let's try:****
>
> *For doctors, it's nearly-thinking systems that can diagnose, prescribe,
> and treat most common illnesses, absent human intervention.*****
>
> *For journalists like me, it's already arrived. It's called the free
> Internet.*****
>
> *For taxi drivers, it's driverless cars.*****
>
> *For hotels, it's Airbnb. <http://www.airbnb.com>*****
>
> If you haven't devised the answer for what it is you do, you have three
> choices: Prepare for it, build it, or ignore it. What's your path?****
>
> Best wishes,
> Leon Kappelman****
>
> ** **
>
> *“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are
> prepared to choose wisely.  The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is
> education.<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/franklind402955.html>”
> – Franklin D. Roosevelt<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/franklind402955.html>
> *
>
> ** **
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Leon A. Kappelman, Ph.D.
>   Professor of Information Systems
>   Director Emeritus, Information Systems Research Center
>   Fellow, Texas Center for Digital Knowledge
>     College of Business, University of North Texas
>     Voice: 940-565-4698   Email: kapp at unt.edu
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail ****
>
> ** **
>
>
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>
>
>
> --
> ===============================================
> Dr. Ilia Bider
> Process- och systemutvecklingskonsult at ibissoft.se
> Lektor & Forskare at DSV.su.seilia at ibissoft.se        +46 (0)8 164998
> Design science in action ... http://slidesha.re/Uq3RTC
>
>
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-- 
*John M. Artz, PhD
Webpages: http://home.gwu.edu/~jartz
Email: jartz at gwu.edu

“Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.” -
Stoic Proverb***
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