> I had a conversation with a dean of a university about offering online courses and the reason they said they would never do it seriously is because that would greatly devalue that people admitted to that school were top tier and thus were top tier on the way out.
IMO that's pretty short-sighted. This line of reasoning is that the degree is valuable _because_ its exclusive, not because the degree is evidence of particular skills gained.
If you simply took the exact same course structure and grading from a Harvard degree and put it online for thousands, the skills gained would be identical.
Obviously being admitted to Harvard signals things besides skill. Wealth and connections, for example, though I would argue maintaining those value signals is harmful to society. It's unfortunate that this dean values those things over increased access to education.
> Is what makes Harvard special that it is doing something uniquely right or that it has the unique ability to draw the best?
'Excellence' in institutions is self-fulfilling. Harvard is seen as being the best, and therefore students choose to go there because they believe it's the best. Since the best students go there, Harvard is indeed the best. At the end of the day it's just perception that drives the cycle. Oh also being ludicrously wealthy.
> IMO that's pretty short-sighted. This line of reasoning is that the degree is valuable _because_ its exclusive, not because the degree is evidence of particular skills gained.
The dean didn't disagree that this was a major aspect of its value.
> If you simply took the exact same course structure and grading from a Harvard degree and put it online for thousands, the skills gained would be identical.
And which one would find jobs the easiest?
> It's unfortunate that this dean values those things over increased access to education.
The dean realizes that in a digital society, most things rapidly become winner take all. Their university has cachet, but not Harvard level cachet. They do not think that 99% of universities would survive everyone moving to online education.
IMO that's pretty short-sighted. This line of reasoning is that the degree is valuable _because_ its exclusive, not because the degree is evidence of particular skills gained.
If you simply took the exact same course structure and grading from a Harvard degree and put it online for thousands, the skills gained would be identical.
Obviously being admitted to Harvard signals things besides skill. Wealth and connections, for example, though I would argue maintaining those value signals is harmful to society. It's unfortunate that this dean values those things over increased access to education.
> Is what makes Harvard special that it is doing something uniquely right or that it has the unique ability to draw the best?
'Excellence' in institutions is self-fulfilling. Harvard is seen as being the best, and therefore students choose to go there because they believe it's the best. Since the best students go there, Harvard is indeed the best. At the end of the day it's just perception that drives the cycle. Oh also being ludicrously wealthy.