by Danny King & Jordan Bishop
contributors
What is the value of a university education? Is it simply to obtain a degree? Is it to acquire information? Or is its value more similar to what our admissions website advertises?
It reads: “Immerse yourself in the PLNU experience and you will never be the same. At PLNU, you will get a dynamic balance of challenging academics, deep spirituality, and a warm community.”
Friends, what challenging academics or warm community have you experienced online lately? On a screen? With your mobile devices and relentless digital babble?
The idea of online education at PLNU is a seductive proposition, but it is an unwise choice and a symptom of a sickness that threatens universities all over the country — the commodification of our education system.
Through online classes and programs, we are turning the holistic, personal educational experience into an assembly line where we input students, hammer them into mass-produced goods through uninspiring e-classrooms and output graduates with cheap diplomas.
This transaction completely negates the principles of our school: “warm community, challenging academics, and deep spirituality.”
Those who propose these online courses say that PLNU should implement online education to keep up with the technological tides, boost enrollment and solve our financial woes.
Even if this does pay off, it only undermines the university’s credibility by trading course quality for student quantity. It is a step away from the community learning experience and challenging academics. It is a move that ultimately tarnishes our university’s reputation in a scandalous attempt to produce more revenue.
However, we are not convinced that online education is quite the cash cow that some administrators think it is. PLNU will never be able to offer online classes or programs that big name schools (even other Christian colleges) could not easily match or edge out in price and quality. Nor should we try to.
We do not need to join the online education arms race! We are giving up our niche market as a small liberal arts college where interdisciplinary discourse is valuable to compete in a market where we will lose.
The strength of PLNU is in its small-classroom, community-minded orientation where professors have personal relationships with students. We read books together, eat meals together, discuss difficult issues together and pursue Christ together — we strive to be a community of humble learners.
This cannot be simply mimicked online. Don’t you see that online classes strip us of our very identity as a liberal arts college?
We urge students, faculty and administration to, at the very least, converse about this issue. Forging ahead with online classes at PLNU will have a significant impact on this university.
We would like to address the following groups specifically:
STUDENTS
Yes, online classes are easier and more accommodating. But we want challenging academics and personal relationships with our teachers and peers. Let us not settle for internet classes when we are paying tens of thousands of dollars every year for holistic, interdisciplinary education. We did not come here to take class online. One simple way to tell our professors and our administration this is to refuse to take online classes next fall.
FACULTY
If there is ever a place to dig your heels in, this is it. Will you push back when our administration plunges forward with these misguided designs that, in the end, commodify your lectures? We know that the most memorable and impactful learning occurs in a classroom. Online education tends to turn robust academic discourse into a sterile, lonely stream of digital information. Advocate on behalf of your students, and don’t resign to being a virtual classroom administrator.
ADMINISTRATION
Even if online education pays dividends, is it really worth it? Does an online education system produce comparable graduates? It is deceitful to market internet classes as Christian education.
Our Nazarene mission seeks to provide opportunities for the marginalized, and some assert that offering online courses fulfills this mission. This is simply not true because it is predicated on the assumption that online courses are comparable to the classroom, community-oriented experience. Thus, we will offer watered-down education to those who pay for and seek the vibrant PLNU environment.
We understand that these are challenging financial times for our university and difficult decisions must be made. But please, please reconsider.
Online education will negatively impact the culture of this campus. In this tough economic desert that we are in, online education is a false hope that falls like acid rain. And on commencement day, the gloomy shadow of credentialism is cast on the white pillars of the Greek amphitheater.
Let us pursue high standards for quality classroom education and not reduce ourselves to scrambling after the factory business model.