With the rise in the popularity of online courses over the past few years, particularly here at ASU, I cannot help but think: What’s next? Virtual courses have made it possible for students from all around the country to obtain a degree from our university, in addition to helping those who need to work full-time or take care of family.
While I fully support the idea of creating more convenient means for obtaining a degree, I think there is untapped potential in the extent of our educational opportunities, one of these being a more nomadic approach to education.
Brian Chesky, co-founder of Airbnb, recently discussed his own predictions for the future of education. Chesky believes that 20 years from now, students will be moving to study in different cities on a monthly basis. The idea is that if you were, for instance, studying art, you could spend a month in Paris, a month in NYC, etc. The idea behind this is that fieldwork, meeting new people and constantly experiencing new environments is going to pay off far more than sitting in a classroom or behind a computer screen ever could.
If you’re like me, your first thought was probably something like, “Wow! Now if only money grew on trees.” But, the truth is that with the right agreements and policies in place, this type of education could cost no more than what most students are already paying for a private school education.
The idea behind this vision is a reliance on peer-to-peer collaboration. Partnerships between university students could mean an exchange system where you live in another traveling student’s apartment. It could also mean still paying your home university tuition but borrowing textbooks and other materials that saved you enough money to be used toward your flight.
Here's the truth: putting this system in place isn’t the hard part. The hard part is making it affordable. Semester at Sea is a study abroad program that most closely resembles this vision for the future of education. In this program, students spend a semester on a cruise that travels to different cities throughout the world where they take part in fieldwork and cultural expeditions. The problem is that most in-state students would be paying more for one semester of this program than they would for all four years at ASU.
Mitigating the costs of such a system is a hurdle that needs to be tackled for this vision to become a reality. However, the ability of most international universities to charge little to nothing in tuition gives hope that a system can someday be put in place that shares those benefits with ambitious students from around the world looking for a new, more collaborative and constantly changing educational atmosphere.
Reach the columnist at ralynch3@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @ryguy916
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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