Everyone at UCSC is invited this Friday, April 26 2013, to a debate on online education at UCSC. I copy below the message if have received a number of times (worries about low turn out?). I note that “the big questions” listed below assume UCSC is adopting a certain type of online courses. I don’t see any questions that I consider “big” such as: cost? legal/credit aspect? process of privatization and dynamics of investment in research functions of the university versus de-investment in undergraduate teaching?

See how the amended Steinberg bill (SB520, dated Feb 21, 2013) still explicitly mandates that the three segments of higher education in California enter into associations with private online providers. The amended bill defers authority in selection and oversight of online courses to universities’ administrations and academic senates, but the basic principle remains the creation of a reserved market for private online course developers. And how will this oversight work in practice, given the budget pressures? It’s proposed as a solution for very impacted entry courses. But there are solutions for this problem that do not necessitate the creation of this kind of relationship with private companies. How much will the subscription costs eventually be for universities and (separately) for students? Universities use a lot of money already to pay for proprietary software subscriptions for record keeping, payroll, registrar, etc., and for access to information databanks. In the case of online courses, why wouldn’t the companies pay for the right to market their products to students in public universities since their marketing strategy will heavily depend on the use of the good name and reputation of universities they contract with? That reputation was built thanks to public investment. In other words, why wouldn’t the public universities levy fees on companies interested in contracting for the more profitable parts of education, and do their bit to put the breaks on the widening economic gaps between citizens? They are already taxing sizable segments of the population, but unfortunately it is a very regressive tax, by charging much higher fees to many students and their families.

April 22, 2013

To: UCSC Community
From: Joe Konopelski, Chair, UCSC Academic Senate
Re: April 26 Forum on Online Education

The Academic Senate’s Committee on Teaching, in collaboration with its Committee on Educational Policy, will host the third in a series of forums on online education on Friday, April 26.

The forum — open to all faculty, staff, and students — will take place from 3:15 to 5 p.m. in the Stevenson Event Center. “Online Education & UCSC: What’s next?” will focus on the big questions surrounding online education:

• How will online education change the role of the professor?
• What are the risks to faculty in respect to intellectual property in offering online courses?
• How will online courses be assessed, and who will determine the measures for success? The panelists, below, will discuss these and many more questions.

Panelists include the following:

• Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera, professor of computer science, Stanford University
• Robert Meister, professor of history of consciousness, UCSC
• Rodney Ogawa, professor of education, UCSC
• Alison Galloway, campus provost/executive vice chancellor, UCSC
• Representative from the UCSC student organization “New School”

The discussion will be moderated by Lois Kazakoff, deputy editorial page editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, and a UCSC alumna (Cowell, 1976).