Astonishing: high tech university future

'Frankly, I do not like teenage geeks with takkies, straight out of college, predicting the collapse of “brick and mortar” universities and the advent of a brave new world in which college comes to you through a computer screen,' says Professor Jonathan Jansen, in an online Rand Daily Mail Online article.  The article provides an astonishing glimpse of the high-tech future of universities.

Chegg offers online tutors on demand alongside step-by-step textbook solutions to your school or university subject problems. The Khan Academy gives free access to mini-lectures on YouTube videos. Coursera, an invention of two Stanford professors, works with universities to offer Massive Online Open Courses, or MOOCs, taking subjects like physics and engineering online to more than 10 million users worldwide.

The Minerva Project is a for-profit company that offers intensive seminars to small groups of students (19 at most) through video-conferencing on an online platform; in the initial years they learn broad competencies such as critical thinking, then move in small groups around the world for a “global immersion” experience as part of a carefully selected academic elite.

For the full article visit www.rdm.co.za/incoming/2014/11/26/an-astonishing-glimpse-of-the-high-tech-future-of-universities.

Follow Professor Jansen on twitter at https://twitter.com/JJ_UFS