Open education..
I’d like to begin with what Dolores said at the end of the post.
“If universities start to offer course materials and educational resources free of charge, what is the motivation for individuals to register as students? How do we differentiate between individuals who have completed the course “officially” and those who have studied the open content? ”
With the advent of new technologies, almost all information and knowledge have been digitalized, and it is true that more and more universities are offering open educational resources. However, I don’t think the number of students who register the course will be decreased so easily due to the open educational resources. Students still want to come to school paying their school expenses. Why?
There maybe be something that students can benefit from taking the course “officially”. Students maybe come to school expecting 1) to get valuable degrees which help getting a better job, 2) to get support from their faculties and colleagues, 3) to interact with others (face-to-face interaction) and so on.
Meanwhile, universities want to manage and develop the system in spite of a considerable expense to maintain it. Why?
From my personal opinion, with open resources, anyone can access and share knowledge which also means it becomes open to criticism against the content. This will make universities put more efforts to raise the quality of content contributing to upgrade the quality of the whole university education.
Both on/off campus education are worthwhile and thus, this dichotomy between on/off campus education would be not appropriate; rather, it would be a matter of personal choice for consumers to choose which one they’re going to take and benefit from it.