Your on it too.

We need a free Online University. Our ideas are really the same and for four years I have tried to get this idea out to. See me on getmyvote.org as russpears as well as my let me know how far you have got the message out!

See my post:
http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ideas/viewIdea.apexp?id=087800000004loz

How low would the acceptance rate be, though?
It costs money to run these things.

Well let me just say every university runs a distance-learning program for profit. And our government spends 850 billion each year for education. Now if the typical coast for these universities has been around 40 to 80 million and this has the added benefit of giving everyone access-I think it is quite passable.

This is a brilliant idea.     I think there are plenty of nice professors out there who would be willing to donate some volunteer hours towards an organization like this.   And you could meet with volunteer tutors through Skype (an online voice and video chat program.)  Although there should be fulltime paid employees as well.

The biggest issue with accreditation, is how do you envigilate exams?  How do you establish solid proof that people are actually doing their homework and learning the material?  If they're at home typing, there's no way to see if they're cheating.   The only solutions I see are costly ones (such as having the exams be NOT online, even though the courses are.)

Absolutely awesome idea. I hope this can really happen. Blessed be~

 

While the idea is appealing, I am unsure how it would be implemented.

Even internet classes require instructors.  Will they be expected to teach, create course outlines, grade homework, etc. for free?  Distance learning courses use 3rd-party software for classes, posting power points, etc. and for student-teacher discussion.  Who will pay for the software, the inital start-up fees and maintenance?

And what about the servers that will be needed for this free internet university?  Who will pay for their maintenance, security and upkeep?

Not everyone in the country has access to the same cable/internet services; many people have outdated computers with outdated software versions that cannot take advantage of current educational technology.   Will they get free computer upgrades to take classes?

How about people with disabilities?  Will they receive free software and hardware to enable participation in this university? 

And library resources are another question.  People mistakenly believe that Google and Wikipedia holds all the information to everything.

But both university and public libraries have to subscribe to journal & other electronic databases (no different than you or I subscribing to the NY Times to get the Sunday paper and their online paper).  These subscriptions can be into the thousands of dollars to access quality information (worthy of university-level research) which is otherwise NOT available via a simple Google search (because the information is propietary and protected by copyright, thereby requiring a subscription).


While a free internet university seems compelling, I question the quality of the education of such an institution at this point.

Fitch, I tried to contact so many officials but none would touch this idea. Did Oprah even respond?

My guess is that this idea has been haunting the powerful and privileged so much that they see their last visage for securing inequalities is the Educational Monopoly. By protecting the top jobs and keeping them out of the reach of the working poor, they stand as the last institution that preserves our fixed class structure in "Democratic America". For sure there are great relations of power that has been set in place from the waning days of civil rights and populists movements in the middle of this past century.

Ariane:

I have a post here that addresses you comments
.
http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ideas/viewIdea.apexp?id=087800000004loz