MOOC as Open Parasite
The idea is to scoop up those students who are being shut out, whether it’s a smart American kid who has to opt for a solid state school when they had their heart set on Brown, or the child of a well-to-do family in Beijing, by offering them a great education and a worldwide network of contacts. Minerva will admit applicants based on their academic chops alone — jocks need not apply — and students would live in urban dorms scattered across the globe’s great cities. They’ll take online courses designed by highly esteemed professors from other established institutions. Meanwhile, tuition would cost “less than half” the price of the standard Ivy league sticker price (so somewhere around $20,000 or below). That, anyway, is the plan.
I believe I can provide the Minerva experience at a fraction of this cost. Call me, venture capitalists!
[…] same kind of parasitic behavior even transcends MOOCs. In this case I’m borrowing Gerry Canavan’s characterization of the following quote from this article on the Minerva […]
Parasites and vultures. | More or Less Bunk
April 14, 2013 at 6:50 pm