I'm going to explain this idea as if I was explaining it to Facebook but if Google or Linked in or anyone else wants to talk about it please get in touch.
I'm also going to reach out to some teachers and college professors about it to see if their might be any support for it in that community.
Without any further explanation...
FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION!
I know I know... but listen. What if.
Facebook put together a process to apply to get a new type of Facebook page. From here on out I'm calling this page a Facebook University page. (Yes this make believe college would be called F.U. and yes I think the name is funny.)
Here is the deal, any professor or teacher that already is qualified to teach in the United States could apply to get a F.U. page. On this page they could create an online class. Complete with video lectures, weekly readings, quizzes and a final exam. Any Facebook user could then take said course and work there way through the material. At then end of the course the user would be given a chance to give the class a review which would let others know if this class was worth taking. This idea could develop into degree programs where each course would be worth an amount of F.U. class credits.
Now yes I understand that you couldn't have technical degrees taught this way. No one would ever want a F.U. Chef of Surgery. But how many other degree programs are already being taught completely online?
Here is the awesome part. The teacher after setting up his course gets a small kickback from Facebook. Kind of like a Google ad sense account. Facebook sells ads down the side of the page and the teacher gets a little kickback from that.
So the teacher wins by getting a little extra cash in his or her pocket.
Facebook wins by getting users engaged again. Also it gets to go back to its college roots.
The Facebook User wins by getting an education.
The world wins, basic college education is now free... and it always will be.
Big College loses and has to adapt like the music industry did back when Napster was cutting into their profits.
I plan to expand on this idea more... allot more. I'm even going to put pictures on the future blogs that expand on this idea. So look forward to that. But now I've had enough to drink and I think it might be bedtime.
Love,
Drew
PS. If you’re a teacher, please comment.
PPS. I'm often wrong about things, so if I'm wrong let me know so I can be right in the future.
PPPS. I have some serious Spelling and grammar issues and I drink when I write this blog.
You asked for comments- here we go.
ReplyDeleteNumber 1: How do you suppose you could stop one bored or scheming individual who simply sat and took classes all day long, or worse, enlisted the help of countless individuals to try to reach some unheard of number of degrees? Who would do this, you may ask? Dumb people, Braggarts, people looking for notoriety in the form of a Guinness Book of Records for number of degrees achieved.
Number 2: I feel that the caliber of teachers this would draw would be somewhere between unsavory and incapable. In my opinion, a teacher wants to feel as though their students care. While, yes, online schools exist and will probably increase in number in the future, I believe there is a strict curriculum regarding mandatory group forums at set times- is this something a Facebook University would require? I feel like what you're suggesting is something of a stop by when you log in kind of joint. I'm not sure many full-time teachers would like the idea of finishing one school to immediately log on and mediate and online class at a set time each day. Perhaps I'm wrong and not completely understanding your idea.
Number 3: I don't feel that Facebook would give "kickbacks" to these teachers unless they were rigorously screened to be sure these people were actually able to impart knowledge and not just in it for the buck- and really, is that something the would happen? Doubtful. You and I have both seen Facebook start as an exclusive, and thus, desirable thing to be a part of. Now I hear they are opening it to kids under 13? They're not doing much monitoring of users, are they? More likely, Facebook would simply promote this person's class with sidebar ads if they had a certain number of "students". I'm sure sidebars have their market, but as a consumer, I find myself skeptical of visiting any website advertised on my FB page.
That's my view on it. It sounds lovely and quite Utopian. If you can make it work, god bless you. I'll be sure to take a French class. Or maybe a class specializing in auto repair. (My car just failed the emissions test.)
Cheers Drew!
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Allie