Will Online Education Make Us Smarter?

Will Online Education Make Us Smarter? - Predictions are 1/2 of higher Ed will be online in the next 10 years. K-12 will follow by 2019.  How do we assess quality with all of the online education providers that are out there? Small start ups and giant MOOCS. Think a lot about how to get personalized support to individuals. Think about scaling content while not losing the focus on the individual.

Adult learning space, higher Ed, and K-12 all have different needs so they create different markets. All of the panelists are from companies that connect teachers directly to students. InstaEdu - even split between high school and college with about 10% adult learners. Students come at first for immediate need and then wind up staying because they build a relationship with the tutor. Teachers are students at high end universities.

Course Hero - 80% higher Ed students. Building learning content that students can access on their own. Building quality content from students and teachers takers time. Requires feedback from students.

Udemy - 80% male because focuses on tech space. Adult learners adding to skill sets or learning about hobbies. Students like the on demand aspects of the learning. Teachers are industry experts, half of whom have some sort of previous education experience. Motivated by reach they have and ability to share their passion. A few instructors have earned $100,000.

Important to get feedback from students through surveys to assess quality of teaching and content. Make sure reviews are available to future students. Can base revenue sharing on popularity/effectiveness of teacher.

Also important to support course developers/teachers with instructional design training since many may not come from education backgrounds.

Certification: In some cases, must have gone to a particular school (top colleges) and have prior experience in tutoring. See very few problems after getting through the initial screening process for tutors.

How do you know it is working? Re-engagement is huge. If students are willing to pay more for more tutoring, that's a good sign. Comments and reviews from students are also important. Survey students to see if they feel they have improved in their understanding or have gotten other benefits such as job advancement or career change.

What is the motivation for online learners? Often it's increasing a grade or obtaining a certification.

What is on the horizon for building the online learning space? We are still in the early days - 1st or 2nd inning. To get more mainstream: build quality content in multiple languages, bring down costs, provide more certificates/certifications. Mobile devices will help integrate online learning into people's busy lives. Need to watch for over-regulation and under-regulation.

Q From audience: How do you scale giving rich feedback to thousands of students with budget constraints for hiring staff?

A: Peer to peer tutors or peer grading can help. One to one teaching will never be free. It is a tough problem.

Q: Any unexpected gains from online tutoring?

A: Learning is on demand any time you need it. Can take courses in subjects not available locally. Badges make it fun for students to learn beyond basic requirements.

Q: How can online learning help students that traditional schooling fails?

A: More diverse set of teachers to choose from so more chance of connecting. Online learning in conjunction with in person can help support students. Finding niche content that engages students in ways that in-person only schools with more limited offerings can't. Offer practical, job-focused and passion focused content to students.

Q: Are any courses accepted by colleges?

A: Udemy has a few professors who use their online courses as part of blended learning. Not transferable to just any institution though. People are willing to pay for high quality content even without a degree plan.

Q: What about copyright?

A: Instructor is responsible for content copyright. If company receives a DMCA notice they remove the content. Course Hero runs a filter to detect content that might be a copyright violation and works with instructor to verify.

Q: How do you avoid mistakes in growing your company?

A: There will be mistakes. And it takes time to build success. You can't do everything overnight but you can do a lot over a longer period of time.

Q: How do you deal with communication problems from students?

A: Try having visual elements with text. And don't forget in person tutoring might be the best if there are communication/language barriers.

Aims and Philosophy of Education

Aims and Philosophy of Education - Although it is not apt to start an essay on a philosophy with a critical remark, for before learning how to criticize, one should learn the content to be criticized, yet , notwithstanding its great merits and value, it seems necessary to criticize Plato's philosophy of education right at the outset.

Plato's philosophy of education aims at preparing learners for future life. This preparation for the future life is almost rejected by modern educational philosophers like Rousseau and Dewey. But this rejection of the

aim to prepare children for future life does not in any sense divest Plato's thought of its significance even in the 21st century. Heidegger in his essay On Plato's doctrine of truth clearly established the relevance of Plato's thought for the 20th century, and those remarks are well taken even in the 21st century.

Plato's significance lies in giving a clear understanding to educators about the meaning of different concepts that appeared in the discourse on education in the history. These concepts include ideas, reason, goodness, metaphysics, dialectics, sense perception, representation, virtue, art as a medium of instruction, motivation and truth. If one looks closely at these concepts , one can easily find that in any discourse on educational philosophy, these words make more frequent appearances. Plato's philosophy helps us in understanding these terms.

Moreover, traditional education , and age old believes about education have their origin in Plato's philosophy, so it is only through a study of Plato that one can understand these things right at the source.

Plato presented his philosophy of education in his Republic. Like most of his other dialogs , the main interlocutor in Republic is Socrates.In the Republic , the basic theme of inquiry is justice. The basic question around which the dialog revolves is , " what is the meaning of justice." Socrates defines justice through establishing an analogy between society and individual. Just as a society comprises classes, an individual has faculties. According to Socrates, a society has three classes. These are:

1. Rulers or Guardians

2. Warriors

3. Artisans and Workers

Corresponding to these classes individual has three faculties:

1. Intellect corresponding to Ruling Class

2. Feelings corresponding to Warriors

3. Desires and Appetites corresponding to Working or artisan class

Each of the the classes and faculties has its own guiding virtue. So the virtue of intellect is wisdom. An intellect works properly when it is guided by wisdom , and wisdom is to know the ultimate truth , the absolute good. Wisdom means to know what lies beyond the appearance , the metaphysical truth. Thus wisdom is equated to philosophical knowledge.

Moreover, the virtue that the class of rulers or guardians should possess is of wisdom. So, according to Plato it is because of their wisdom , the knowledge of the ultimate reality, that rulers become proper rulers. Wisdoms or philosophical knowledge , termed as Sophia in Greek, is the ability to know the metaphysical causes behind the reality, the truth and knowledge of the God.

In order to express feeling, one needs courage. So the virtue or the goodness of feelings lies in their courageous expression. Therefore, warriors should have courage, for they are responsible for expressing the discontent of society, they have to defend any infringement in the values or geographical boundaries of society. They have to guard the economic interests as well, for a society accumulates wealth and neighbors can covet it. Courage According to Aristotle is a mean between cowardice and rashness. A person who is not able to feel fear is not courageous. Only that person is courageous who feels fear and is naturally inclined to deal with fearful situations.

Homer in his Iliad wrote that cowards and courageous people are differentiated clearly in an ambush. In an ambush a coward sweats and trembles, and feels like fleeing away from the situation. Whereas a courageous person , who is naturally inclined towards dealing with his fears, feels excitement and remains steadfast.

Artisans or the producers class has to create wealth . However their goodness lies in temperance, self control. They have control their appetites, for if they can't control their appetites than anarchy can result. So the virtue of the working class is temperance. Temperance, according to Aristotle , is a mean between licentious attitude and insensitivity towards pleasures. So masses should neither be licentious nor insensitive towards pleasure, but in between these two states.

So , according to Plato a society maintains justice if its classes are virtuous according to their class specific needs, warriors are courageous, Rulers are wise and masses have temperance . If these classes act in complete harmony with each other and in each class members have the class specific virtue, then the society will become a just society.

Now the question is , how one can ensure that each class has its virtue? How this can be ensured that rulers are wise, warriors are courageous and masses have self control? Plato suggests that this can be ensure through education alone.

So Plato recommends an education system which is uniform and which pursues the general aims of the society itself. The aim of the society is to maintain both justice and peace.

Plato has designed his educational plan for the education of guardians or rulers. Thus his basic question is how to educate a person in the earlier part of his life to enable him to become a philosopher, a lover of wisdom and truth in the later years. How a person becomes a philosopher? Plato says that through the knowledge of absolute good, or the metaphysical truths , one becomes a philosopher. So the aim of education in Plato is to enable the learners to know the metaphysical truth. Thus metaphysics is the aim of education and learning .

Now the question is what is metaphysics? Plato has answered this question in his famous allegory of cave . Metaphysics , initially means to know the causes of the things present in this world ; causes that are behind the appearances. For Plato these are ideas, intelligible forms that allow things to appear as they are, things on the other hand , in their existence, are only imperfect copies to these eternal forms or ideas.

The highest idea or the highest form is the absolute good , or God for Plato. True knowledge lies in knowing  this cause of the causes, the absolute truth. Plato in his allegory of cave explained the absolute truth or the cause behind everything through the simile of the Sun.

Plato actually used the metaphor of vision and light to explain metaphysics and the reality. Things are there and eye is also there , but if there is no light , eye can't see anything. So, light is the precondition for vision, without light no vision is possible.

The greatest source of light is the Sun, it is because of the bounty of the sun light that everything is visible; without sunlight no vision is possible. Similarly , the reality of the things present in the world is not in them , in concrete things, but in the ideas of which these things are mere copies. However, ideas and form cannot be perceived by senses, these can only be intellectualized; ideas are intelligible and not perceptible.

But these ideas cannot be understood until the great enabler, the truth of the truth , the God does not allow the mind to understand these objects. So ideas can only be understood with the help of divine light. And the absolute good , the great enabler is also knowable; one can know the God.

Thus, the aim of education is to enable a person to acquire the knowledge of this cause of the causes, the absolute good. Education prepares a man for the vision of absolute reality.And that is why, education right from the beginning is a preparation for the future.

Great Tips Study In USA 2013

Great Tips Study In USA 2013 - If you are planning to study in USA be prepared to have an experience of a lifetime.  USA is the land of opportunities, because of its cutting-edge technology, mega bucks and for life, as you want it to be.

A US education is like a coal mine investment which at the end yields you a high rate of profit for many many years. USA, an ideal destination for acquiring higher education offers a mind boggling range of universities with highly sophisticated and enlightening educational environments. Access to internationally renowned faculties makes them world leaders. An American education offers phenomenally
higher returns over one’s investment, not only economically but also socially and culturally.

Dr Mary Anne Saunders -Executive Director from Kent State University says

“USA offers a wide range of degrees which are globally recognized. Under "liberal arts philosophy" undergraduate degrees are quite flexible and vast number of academic options to choose from. For postgraduate and masters programs -Top University in US provide outstanding research infrastructure and facilities. The students get theoretical, practical and applied aspects of an area of study. The campuses are multicultural that prepare the students to be global citizens”.

Karan Barabde who pursued his Masters in Mechanical Engineering passed out from University of Southern California says “Professional guidance from my counselor helped me make my American Dreams come true”

According to 2012 Open Door’s Report - The number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased by 6.5% to 764,495 during the 2011/12 academic year.

Financing a post-secondary education abroad is no easy task but fear not,as there are a number of resources to assist you . Over 20% of non-US students receive most of their academic funding from a US college or university through variety of programs. Many of them offer partial scholarships or full scholarships, fee waivers, graduate/research/teaching/student assistant scholarships etc.
International students also have the option of taking up well-paying campus jobs, working 20 hours a week on regular term and full-time during summer vacation. On completion of the course, students have the authorization to work for 12 months to 29 months known as OPT (Optional Practical Training) depending on their field of study. Good job opportunities will be available to students particularly with degrees in healthcare, teaching, business, finance, hotel management, accounting, technology, engineering, mathematics etc. as these are fields with great demand in a recovering economy.

Even after this if, your vote is not cast for a US education, here is the clincher, some Top University in US have started accepting 15 years of education over 16 years. These universities accept 15 years for study in the field of Business, Hotel Management, Psychology, Computer Science, etc. This not only benefits the student by saving time but also helps them start earning early.

If you are apprehensive that you have missed the bus, do not fret, for many American universities are still open for admissions to their fall sessions beginning August/September 2013. All you have to do is to prepare your documents well. It’s a good time for starting applications for fall 2013 (September) intake. An early application will help students to bag most of the scholarships available, which universities offer to lure talent and brains. It is a good time to visit your counselor to initiate this process.

Head to USA and harvest the best crop of the ongoing economic upswing. We are committed to earnestly and correctly guide you at each and every step to help you reach the destination.

Sushil Sukhwani
Director, Edwise