Dear Scott, Exploring this at our end, it was found as mention on Stephen Downes' website asking for comments. Here are some
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=47530 University of the People - Providing Low Cost Online Degree Courses Worldwide Email advertising blanketed the edublogs community today (I got four) announcing the 'University of the People', purportedly the "the world's first tuition-free, internet-based academic institution." The New York Times, which also got the same press release, channels it uncritically into an article. The term "tuition-free" is just a nicety; students will still have to pay to register and take tests. The term "university" is also a misnomer; it still seeks accreditation. None of this means that the venture won't work. It's just you don't get to call yourself "first" until you've actually done what you say you've done.. Seb Schmoller, Fortnightly Mailing, January 26, 2009. [Link] [Tags: Assessment, Marketing, Academia, Tuition and Student Fees] [Previous][Next] Comments Re: University of the People - Providing Low Cost Online Degree Courses Worldwide alqpr, January 27, 2009 It may be of interest to note that the UoP founder Shai Reshef's main enterprise, cramster.com, appears to be a website designed at least in part to facilitate cheating on homework. And this expands further on the above comment http://fm.schmoller.net/2009/01/university-of-the-people---providing-fre e-acc.html UoP (a not-for-profit) is coy about costs: "The University of the People plans at this stage to charge only nominal application fee ($15-$50) and examination fees ($10-$100), which will be adjusted on a sliding scale based on the student's country of origin." and will start with two degree courses, a BA in Business Administration and a BSc in Computer Science, running over ~four years for full-time students. Currently, UoP says it "intends to apply for accreditation from recognized authorities as soon as possible". Shai Reshef, the founder, is a serial entrepreneur with a very strong track record in making this kind of thing work. For example, a Netherlands-based for-profit company Reshef chaired, and which was subsequently sold to Laureate Inc. [PDF], was the delivery partner for a range of Liverpool University online masters courses. Comments It may be of interest to note that Mr Shai Reshef's main enterprise, cramster.com, appears to be a website designed at least in part to enable students to get help with their homework, including the collection and publication of solutions to the even numbered questions from textbooks that already come packaged with complete worked solutions for their odd numbered problems. Since the even-numbered questions are often used for assignments I think it is reasonable to interpret the publication of their solutions as facilitation of cheating. Having been challenged by Seb on this, I would have to agree that of course homework of all kinds is by its nature done on the "honour system", and most instructors encourage students to work to some extent cooperatively. But there is a difference between struggling together to solve a problem or discuss an issue, and just copying a prepared answer or essay. Facilitating the latter undermines both the learning and evaluative value of the exercise and so I do think it can fairly be referred to as cheating. Cheers, Patricia -----Original Message----- From: wikieducator@googlegroups.com [mailto:wikieduca...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of ScottGeoffrey Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 10:15 AM To: WikiEducator Subject: [WikiEducator] new OER online-only university I just ran accross this: http://www.uopeople.com/site/index.asp?depart_id=104898 and I'm curious if anyone else has heard about it and what thoughts there may be on it. Scott --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
