… that technology is the solution to the campus budget crisis.
[L]et’s develop more online courses, because there’s no classroom limit. Instructors don’t have to lecture, so pre-prepared texts could be uploaded for students, and an expert scholar isn’t needed. Videos and Powerpoint slideshows will fill the time and can be used repeatedly, saving costs.
The profound teacher-student discussions in “chat rooms” may get unwieldy with hundreds of students logging in, but most will vanish soon enough when they realize that no one knows they are there. It’s not much of an education, but it’s cheap, and there [are] few enough jobs out there for “graduates” anyway.
From a comment thread at Inside Higher Ed.