Re: faculty coursework online

From: Art MacCord <amaccord[_at_]rcblaw.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 09:20:05 -0500

On Thu, Mar 02, 2000, Harold Federow <haroldf[_at_]bsquare.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 01, 2000, Art MacCord <amaccord[_at_]rcblaw.com> wrote:
> >
> > However in the coming days, the very best professor/lecturer of any
> > given subject, such as 18th Century European History (let's call him
> > the superstar), can be made available to 100,000 students via distance
> > learning instead of the mere 500 or so students who fit into the
> > amphitheaters that pass as college classrooms. Note that the lecturers
> > who would have had jobs lecturing to the other 99,500 freshmen not
> > reached by the superstar traditionally will need to find something
> > else to do. The value of the notes and performance of the superstar
> > is going to be augmented. That augmented value will be the incentive
> > for more disputes.
>
> I wouldn't be too sure about this last. When I was in college, one of
> the superstars of economics was Paul Samuelson, who wrote the standard
> Econ 101 text. A friend of mine who actually had him as a professor
> in Econ 101 said he was one of the worst teachers he had.
>
> I also think that the opportunity to interact personally with the
> professor teaching the course is at least as important and you can't
> do that via distance learning.

As to your first point, I agree that those who can write great books may not be able to deliver a lecture worth a hoot, but in my thoughts, the superstar is the superstar lecturer, if collegiate egos will permit such a differentiation. Indeed, true superstardom may really best be reached by a team. How about an economics lecture that really amounts to a discussion of debate between Samuelson, Milton Friedman, Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan, or other luminaries who really can articulate the subject matter? Or maybe each talks for ten minutes on some topic, giving the several viewpoints of the subject available. As in most things two heads are better than one and if the two heads are regarded as the best two in the business, why shouldn't students at Pocatello State get access to them, as well as students at Harvard?

As to your second point, when I was an undergrad, many moons ago, we had survey courses where the university's superstar would give the lecture twice a week to the auditorium of 500 of us customers. On the third day of the week they broke us into "seminar" groups of twenty or so to talk over the wise man's lectures and the readings with a graduate student. Actual one-on-one meetings with the superstar required being one of the lucky ones to get 15 minutes of his time during his office hours. I assume this paradigm is still in wide use, and this is what I think will be replaced by distance learning.

            Art MacCord
            Rhodes & Mason P.L.L.C.
            1600 First Union Tower
            Post Office Box 2974
            Greensboro, North Carolina  27402

            Email: amaccord[_at_]rhodesmason.com <mailto:amaccord[_at_]rcblaw.com>

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