US: Blackboards without borders

An Israeli businessman called Shai Reshef plans to open what he claims will be the world's first tuition-free online institution called the "University of the People". The non-profit organisation is supposed to begin operations in April using collaborative and open-source e-learning course material. In lieu of tuition, a UoP release says it will charge nominal application and examination fees of $15-$50 and $10-$100 respectively but that these may be adjusted on a sliding scale based on the economic situation in the student's country of origin.

"UoP will be open to any student with access to a computer and internet connection who can submit a certificate of graduation from secondary school and demonstrate proficiency in English or pass two preliminary English courses at the university," Reshef said in the release.

"Education, just like democracy, should be a right, not a privilege," he said. "With a few keystrokes, UoP takes the concept of social networking and applies it to academia, providing a global chalkboard for all students."

Reshef was formerly chair of the Kidum Group - the largest for-profit education services company in Israel. The release says he joined Kidum in 1989 when it was a single-product company with revenues of $100,000 and boosted its revenues until it had annual earnings in excess of $25 million, with more than 1,000 employees and 50,000 students a year.

In 2005, he sold Kidum to Kaplan, one of the world's largest education companies and a subsidiary of the Washington Post. Reshef is currently chairm of the board of Cramster.com, an online "study community of students, educators and subject enthusiasts".

Reshef said open-source technology and increasing access to the internet meant higher education could be made available to people all round the world. Millions of people never had the chance to attend college because of economic and geographic constraints.

"Long-distance learning is a growing trend in the US. According to a survey by the Sloan Consortium, approximately 4 million students are enrolled in online education. As a tuition-free service, UoP will take the concept of e-learning to an unprecedentedly broader - worldwide - audience."

Reshef said the online institution would be able to function on a limited budget without sacrificing quality of education by using collaborative and open-source eLearning. It would "embrace" peer-to-peer teaching with students sharing resources, exchanging ideas, discussing weekly topics, submitting assignments and sitting examinations - all online.

"The curriculum will be supported by respected scholars. A community of educators, comprised of active and retired professors, librarians, masters-level students and other professionals, will participate and oversee the assessment process. They will also develop ongoing procedures for curriculum evaluation and development."

In the release, Reshef said he expected "tens of thousands of students" to enrol within the first five years. Although the university would cap numbers at 300 in the first semester, the peer-to-peer pedagogical model would encourage rapid expansion in following years.

"The University of the People represents a huge leap in the democratisation of education by reaching those who until now viewed college as a pipedream," he said. "Education is a proven mechanism for upward mobility. Our goal is to positively impact the life chances of as many people as possible."

With the obvious intent of capitalising on the international student market by offering the most sought-after courses, Reshef said that initially UoP would run two undergraduate degrees: a BA in business administration and a BSc in computer science.

Full-time students would be able to complete the undergraduate degree in about four years although they would be eligible for an associate degree after two years. UoP intended to apply for accreditation from recognised authorities as soon as the waiting process for eligibility was met, he said.

Critics of the plan promptly emerged in cyberspace. In a discussion of the project on the blog of Tzvee Teaneck, a US professor and rabbi, the writer notes that Reshef's plan is not exactly new. Online learning is expanding and, through the Open Courseware Consortium started in 2001 by MIT, universities around the world have posted materials for thousands of courses, "as varied as lambing and sheep management at Utah State and relativistic quantum field theory at MIT", all free to the public while many universities now post their lectures on iTunes.

"For-profit universities like the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University have extensive online offerings. And increasingly, both public and private universities offer at least some classes online," Teaneck says.

But he points out that experts in online education say the UoP project raises many questions and quotes the sceptics: "We've chatted about doing something like this over the last decade but decided the time wasn't yet right," said John Bourne, Executive Director of the Sloan Consortium.

"It's true that the open courseware movement is pretty robust so there are a lot of high-quality course materials out there, but there's no human backup behind them. I'd be interested to know how you'd find and train faculty and ensure quality without tuition money."

Teaneck also quotes Philip G Altbach, the highly-respected Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, who questions the logistics of the plan: "The more you get people around the world talking to each other, great, and the more they talk about what they're learning, just wonderful.

"But I'm not at all sure, when you start attaching that to credits and degrees and courses, that it translates so well. How will they test students? How much will the professors do? How well does the American or British curriculum serve the needs of people in Mali? How do they handle students whose English is not at college level?"

Comment:
I had a similar idea in 1999 with the difference that it was a fee paying University with lecturers/professors posting their material to the University which would put the courses on line for students. The courses would have supporting international authors who would assist the local tutors to aswer querries. There would be physical sites for exams and getting together. The fees would pay authors, tutors, and management. The idea was meant for Uganda situation and all admission criteria would be similar to those used in Uganda. With the emergency of open-source e-learning material, fees can be reduced considerably but tutors would definitely be required.We have not dropped the idea.

Prof Gaddi Ngirane-Katashaya