wtscils598x08

I am not very familiar with the US education system, but having been here for more than a year, it seems that continuing education is a big business. Many US institutions are actively recruiting students from both within the country and internationally. Online education, in particular, seems to be all the rage. Personally, I do not favor asynchronous delivery of courses because as Brown and Duguid noted, effective learning is not a mere act of consuming content. It requires one to engage in conversations with people in both formal and informal settings. Through interactions with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds on a campus, a student is able to develop meaningful constructs pertaining to course content over time. It is through this process that learning occurs.

What this means to providers of online education here and elsewhere is that institutions can no longer focus on delivering information to learners and expect learning to take place. Granted, some people are merely after paper qualifications and couldn't care less about the learning process. As long as he or she does enough rote learning to pass quizzes and exams, nothing else really matters. But for those who truly want to enjoy the intellectual rigor in the learning process, nothing beats sitting down with a classmate over lunch or beer and "talking shop" informally. In most instances, ideas are born and opinions shaped. It's something that Web 2.0 tools and even Cisco's sophisticated telepresence technology can't match. The value of a highly-ranked MBA program lies in the people you'll meet, and not so much about the learning material or the piece of paper you'll earn at the end of it all.

I absolutely concur with Brown and Duguid's suggestions on what universities should do to reorganize the system of higher education. The system of satellite campuses is already implemented by some "degree granting bodies" in the US and a few others in the UK (University of London), France (Insead) and Australia (Monash University and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). A local campus offers the best option for someone who does not have the financial means or ability to earn a degree at a distant school. The next best option might be online education, but institutions should require some form of residency, at least for a limited period, to allow students to form peer networks that are so important in supporting learning.