Rethinking Education

By: Justin Tallant

 Purpose of College Education
“The very purpose of college education is to empower the student with life skills that enable him to
contribute positively to society.”
1. To learn and grow as an individual and seek out the calling in life which
you may dedicate yourself to in order to have purpose and give
contribution to society.
2. To gain the skills required to be deserving of pay.
3. To gain credibility or proof that you have acquired these skills to be
presented to a potential employer.
4. To party, waste a bunch of time, waste a bunch of money, play lots of
Xbox, and be stuck in a dead end low pay job you hate or even worse be
jobless after graduation? (Guess it’s time to move back in with mom and
dad, it’s kind’ve like being in high school again only this time you are in
debt and expected to actually make a contribution, congrats on your
college degree though!)
 Purpose of College Education
Due to the exponential advancement of technology, the first two
purposes can be served without a college education. The
internet now contains enough information for people to learn as
much or more than a university graduate in most subjects for
free and on their own time. The problem is that the education
system has not caught up with the lightning fast advancement of
technology and old inefficient models are still being applied. Big
organizations move slow to change, this presents an opportunity
for a small yet ambitious organization to disrupt education as we
know it.
 Purpose of College Education
The third reason remains a mystery to me. If we have all of the
content that universities offer available to us for free on the
internet, why haven’t we developed some sort of credibility
system that allows “self-educating” students to simply take the
same tests university students take in order to gain credibility or
prove that they do know the material? It just doesn’t add up. In
one hand we have a college education system which is using
inefficient and outdated methods of teaching that waste
valuable time, cause confusion, contain very high costs, and
show little promise of a fulfilling job after graduation. And in the
other we have free information but no credibility system created
for it.
 Problems With College Education
• Commuting to and from campus wastes time and money.
• Classes are scheduled around the universities schedule, not the
individuals.
• Lectures are an outdated teaching format. The human attention span is
very short (around 15-20 minutes) while lectures range from 1-3 hours.
• The broken-record professor: Professors repeat the same lectures over and
over to different sets of students taking the same class (a quite massive
waste of time for teachers and students). Audio video recording allows the
lecture to be performed one time and available for view by billions around
the world online. Digital lectures can be paused, rewound, etc. Students
move at their own pace. Instead of wasting countless hours repeating
themselves, professors can actually apply their expertise by interacting
with students in dedicated online discussions which take place after the
student has watched a lecture.
 Problems With College Education
• The current format for education can’t keep up with the fast changing real
world work environment. Students are taking in a lot of useless
information that they will never apply in the real world.
• Expenses for college education are extremely high and often times require
that the student seek university or local housing, increasing costs even
further. To add to this frustration it would seem that universities nickel and
dime you to death with their expensive “custom” textbooks that are
“unique” to the class you are taking and their $40.00 clickers they use to
keep attendance as if you are a child, their outrageously priced meal
plans, etc. They will charge you a fee or tack on extra cost for just about
anything they can come up with. Meanwhile, college basketball coaches
are making six figure salaries up to $600,000 dollars (Tom Crean). Keep in
mind you and your parents have been paying taxes for your entire life
which of course are being applied toward you local state university.
 Problems With College Education
• Commute time, time spent taking in useless information, and
a relatively un-flexible schedule make it difficult for a student
to work while in school which costs him or her even more
money and compiles debt.
• Average salaries are low when compared to costs and debts.
• Job placement is sub par and seemingly ever declining when
considering costs.
• Universities do not teach students about purpose in life, how
to find their passion, or how to design a life plan. This leaves
students feeling lost and constantly questioning the purpose
behind their assignments and educational objectives.
 Problems With College Education
• Lack of emphasis and use of technology over a large variety of
curriculums is leaving students behind.
• There is a wide spread college culture associated with
drinking and partying on federal loan money, and money from
parents. It is very easy for a student to get caught up in this
culture and lose his way leading to a life of struggle and
failure. Some of the best high school students fall into this
trap in college despite the most voracious efforts of the
strictest parents (it just seems so cool at the time). Knowing
how to have a good time is vital, but many students base their
entire life around drinking.
 Solutions
• Online classes eliminate the time wasting hassle of commuting.

• Online classes allow much more flexibility of schedule.

Focusing on the individual, not the masses.

• Lectures can be recorded and broken into smaller sections

appealing to the humans natural attention span. A short
interaction where a student applies concepts presented after
each section further reinforces retention.
• Lectures move at whatever speed the student desires. No time
is wasted answering the unwanted questions of other students
who zoned out. Rewinding allows the student to hear a concept
again without feeling stupid for asking a question.
 Solutions
Professors can focus on clearing up confusions or delving into more
complex material after the lecture has been viewed by video instead
of repeating the same things over and over. The majority of questions
will be eliminated because an audio and video response to the
question can be posted on the internet allowing students to search for
the question and its video response before asking the same question.
Only new questions will be allowed to be asked. Professors also don’t
necessarily have to answer questions in real time. They can record a
video response and submit it. If the answer is not sufficient the
student may submit an additional question for clarification. These
methods will allow professors to work less hours yet teach a much
larger number of students and maintain a more flexible schedule
themselves. They are after all experts of their field so lets stop using
them as robots that spit out repetitive audio tracks to multiple sets of
inattentive ears.
 Solutions
• An education system designed by experts and developed by
software engineers allows for up to date information and
constant real time evolution of content that NEVER gets
outdated and utilizes the newest technology. New technology
and technology savvy curriculum designers will keep students
up to date with technology, giving them every possible
advantage.
• Through donations and the ability to automate over 90% of the
educational process we can offer free education to the entire
world. Once the system is setup, maintenance fees per student
will decrease through time.
• Online classes decrease the chances of a student getting caught
up in the drinking and Xbox vegetation culture of many college
students today.
 Solutions
• One issue of internet education would be that the information
is there but it is not well structured or formatted into a
curriculum one could easily follow.

• The solution to this is very simple. Create a Non-Profit

Organization which will analyze current college curriculums,
design an updated and more applicable curriculum for the
current day, and harness the power of the internet to gather
information to fulfill this new modern curriculum. Not only
will it be free, it will be better.
 Solutions
The new curriculum will put a focus on defining an individuals
character and helping them to define what it is they want to do
with their life and discover their purpose as well teach the
importance of having a higher purpose. This way when they
decide their course of study, they will have meaning behind it. If
they decide it’s not for them, no big deal, no need to bother
withdrawing and being refunded, wasting money on
unnecessary credit hours, or any of the like. Simply switch to a
different course of study and begin learning. Sounds like a dream
doesn’t it?
 Potential Arguments
“How can this be free? Won’t it cost a lot of money to set it up?”

Indiana University alone (not a considerably large university) has

an annual budget of $2.4 billion dollars. This new free online
education system could be built in less than five years for a
fraction of that amount. That means the new system would be
educating the entire planet for less than the annual budget of a
single state university. Don’t forget we’re not talking education
alone, but credibility to boot. Credibility that replaces a college
degree (more details on this will be published at a later date).
 Potential Arguments
“Okay so let’s say you get enough donations to build it, who is
going to pay to maintain it?”

I mentioned before that over 90% of the system can be

automated. Every time a question is answered it’s available to
the universe and will not need answered again. The longer the
system exists the more comprehensive it becomes, needing less
maintenance. Of course as new information comes available and
discoveries are made the curriculum must be updated. As
technology improves the site will have to be updated to ensure
maximum efficiency.
 Potential Arguments
“Okay so let’s say you get enough donations to build it, who is
going to pay to maintain it?”

As the number of users grows the system will require more and
more maintenance which will increase costs, but at the same
time as the number of users grows it is highly likely that the
number of donations will grow with it. After all when you are
saving a student $30,000 plus dollars a $200.00 contribution is
nothing.
 Potential Arguments
• The fixed costs will consist of the software engineers and
developers maintaining the site/system, salaries of
organizational leaders, and the experts of the various fields
which will be curating the content and interacting with
students.
• While there is still much research to be done, I am confident
that donations will be sufficient enough to provide the NPO
with enough funds to keep the new education system up and
ever improving. I imagine as the project picks up steam many
volunteers will be excited to get involved. After all, who
wouldn’t want to be a part of educating the planet and all the
generations to come and making both knowledge and
credibility free to the world? I can’t think of a better gift to
mankind.
 Potential Arguments
"Online education can’t replace classroom learning with a live
instructor.”

If you believe this to be true, you are severely mistaken. Most

professors just repeat the same lectures over and over with
power point slides. As I have already mentioned this is a waste of
time when a recorded lecture can be created. Answers to follow-
up questions will be recorded and put into a database accessed
for free. Online education is actually more precise, more
efficient, easier to pay attention to, and can answer just as many
questions. Classroom style education is outdated and inferior.
 Potential Arguments
"Online education can’t replace classroom learning with a live
instructor.”

Personally I can’t recall one single subject I have had in any

college class which required me to ask my professor for any
further explanation. This is not to say I never needed help, I just
never needed help that I couldn’t find from another student, in
my textbook, or on the internet. If I had a recording of the
lecture maybe I wouldn’t have needed to search for extra help
anyway.
 Potential Arguments
”Won’t thousands of professors lose their jobs?”

While this might be true let’s not be selfish here. Weigh some
people losing their jobs (who won’t be starving mind you)
against all the new jobs which will be created by a much more
educated planet. The potential closing of the gap between rich
and poor due to a free education alone is so huge that crying
about some lost jobs is fairly irrelevant. The amount of jobs
created through a free education system will dwarf the amount
of jobs lost. Besides, it doesn’t make sense to cling onto an
inefficient system for the short term benefit of a few.
 Potential Arguments
”Won’t thousands of professors lose their jobs?”
• Due to the previously mentioned technology benefits and
professors being able to teach a lot more students and
actually use their expert knowledge instead of repeating
things over and over, their job will actually become much
more fulfilling because they will actually get to use their skills.
This will lead to less professors, but higher quality happier
professors who have more flexible schedules.
• In the long run it could actually increase the amount of
teaching jobs because a free education system means a lot
more students which means a lot more professors even if the
professor to student ratio is lower.
 Potential Arguments
”Won’t thousands of professors lose their jobs?”

Professors can come work for the NPO and receive a salary
through donations. They can also contribute to the original
structure of a system billions of students will be using for
centuries. That, I imagine, would be very fulfilling for someone
who enjoys teaching.
 Potential Arguments
“Online education will be boring, people won’t meet any new
people, and social skills will decline.”

Actually I believe the contrary to be true. It all depends on how

you set the system up. One could set the system up in a way that
people are paired with local students and placed into teams to
work through their selected curriculums together. They will be
required to do a certain number of team projects to encourage
social interaction and meeting new people.
 Potential Arguments
“Online education will be boring, people won’t meet any new
people, and social skills will decline.”

To take it a step further we will utilize social networking technology

and students will have the contact information of all the students in
their area interested in the same subjects and can friend them,
video chat with them, ask questions, etcetera. Let’s be honest, not a
lot of social interaction goes on during class or on the bus anyway.
Most kids just sit there and keep to themselves. Online education
will ironically improve social skills and people will make new friends
because they will have access to a large number of local students
with the same interests as them and will be able to communicate
with them via live video with a single click. #welcometothefuture
 Potential Arguments
“What about sports teams and athletics?”
• With all the money students and parents are saving with their
free online education they can all contribute to funding their
own community sports leagues.
• The free education system can utilize some of it’s technology
and social network to give students tools to build such teams
and recruit fellow students to join their teams.
• The possibilities are endless and I’ve only thought about the
sports aspect of it for a couple of minutes. I am sure people
will come up with many creative solutions which will actually
encourage more teamwork and entrepreneurial thought. Plus
lower costs and the ability for every skill level to participate in
their own individual leagues adds additional benefit.
 The Credibility System
• So far we have covered the basic idea of the new model, it’s
potential benefits, and some possible arguments against it.
• I mentioned that we would be providing credibility along with
education.
• There are several ways we can go with the credibility system.
The simplest way would be to have timed tests online which
students can take and are automatically scored. Of course one
might argue that the student can look up answers. A possible
solution to this would be the student turning their webcam on
and recording themselves taking the test so the reviewers can
see that no additional electronics were being used to look up
answers.
 The Credibility System

• An alternative solution would be to have local proctoring

locations which are ran by certified volunteers who take turns
monitoring students during exams.
• Basically the student does all their work online and then goes
to a local library or the like where a trustworthy group of
volunteers monitors the students while they are taking their
test.
• These are only a few of many solutions, it will not be an issue.
 Additional Benefits
• Only a small number of the benefits of a free online education
system have been mentioned here. One could think of about
a hundred more just by considering the proposed new model
and all the tools it provides for just five minutes.

• The free education system allows the student to work at

whatever pace they want to. If they have the ability they can
get three or more bachelors degrees in less than four years,
all for free. It just depends on their work ethic and mental
ability.
 Additional Benefits
• The fact that the model is designed to teach individuals
instead of masses means that gifted students won’t be held
back by the average pace of the rest of the system and will be
able to reach their true potential.

• If someone randomly decides they aren’t satisfied in their

career they can get online and learn a new trade in their spare
time and switch jobs.

• A more educated planet leads to less poverty and less crime.

 Drawbacks
• The government won’t be able to collect the interest on all
that lost loan money they will be losing due to a free
education system.#Sarcasm
 Conclusion
• This is a very rough sketch of what the new
model will be like.
• This presentation is meant to give people an
idea of what it will look like, it’s potential
benefits, and get them thinking.
• This is a “very rough draft” that will be
modified over time and additional information
will be published.
• I’ll probably add some stats, cool graphs, you
know….stuff like that.