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Free Online Education is Now Illegal in Minnesota

Muddy Creek said:
Well, if it won't help in finding a job, then the government needs to kick this useless corporate involvement in education off the internet, IMHO.
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Wow, is someone hacking your account? How can free education from a number of quite expensive universities be a bad thing? Do you only seek knowledge that helps find a job?
 
Kandahar said:
According to Minnesota's Office of Higher Education, it isn't the fact that it's free and online that Minnesota finds problematic...it's the fact that the universities who offer these free courses through Coursera haven't obtained permission or paid the $1,200 application fee. Nevertheless, if free online education providers have to pay a shakedown fee to every local, state, or national government that wants to shake them down, it will be very financially difficult for them to operate.

Seems like Minnesota needs to update its laws for the 21st century.
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thank god~!!! Hopefully they will tackle the ****s trying to deal with world hunger next
 
Muddy Creek said:
Well, if it won't help in finding a job, then the government needs to kick this useless corporate involvement in education off the internet, IMHO.
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lol, do you even try to make sense?
 
AliHajiSheik said:
Wow, is someone hacking your account? How can free education from a number of quite expensive universities be a bad thing? Do you only seek knowledge that helps find a job?
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Quite! Education =/= training.
 
The number one reason for public education is to help the poor get an education.

Free online schools can offer up an education at zero cost to these same poor individuals, but you know, lets ban that because they didn't pay some absurd fee.

The logic is really something.
 
Muddy Creek said:
Well, if it won't help in finding a job, then the government needs to kick this useless corporate involvement in education off the internet, IMHO.
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So the free exchange of information is a bad thing now and should be banned. Keep going...
 
Henrin said:
The number one reason for public education is to help the poor get an education.

Free online schools can offer up an education at zero cost to these same poor individuals, but you know, lets ban that because they didn't pay some absurd fee.

The logic is really something.
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I agree, this is dumb. The more we can automate the rote pieces of education, the cheaper, more standardized, and better it is for the society as a whole. If we can do it right, than we can see less government involvement in the sector, which is fine by me. Government should only be there for things the market can't do well on its own.
 
The great plus of schemes such as Coursera, which awards no diplomas, to me, is that it removes the link between education for education's sake, and vocational training. As far as I can see Coursera isn't attempting to enter into the qualification business, but is looking at offering educational opportunities to people who are interested in a subject for the sake of the joy of learning. If they can then apply that to their daily lives, great, but that doesn't seem to be its prime objective.

I like that.
 
Another advantage of this free education is that it can be used by people who might be struggling with their own real classes, and/or might help prepare them for classes they will take in the near future.

It is simply mind-boggling that anybody can even attempt to put a negative spin on free education. Any person who would attempt to do so is being dishonest and is simply being argumentative for argument's sake.
 
I almost hate to ask but did any of you even read the article?
 
Kandahar said:
According to Minnesota's Office of Higher Education, it isn't the fact that it's free and online that Minnesota finds problematic...it's the fact that the universities who offer these free courses through Coursera haven't obtained permission or paid the $1,200 application fee. Nevertheless, if free online education providers have to pay a shakedown fee to every local, state, or national government that wants to shake them down, it will be very financially difficult for them to operate.

Seems like Minnesota needs to update its laws for the 21st century.
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Couldn't the argument be made that the classes are not being taught in Minnesota, but in the state where the server is located? Seems to me like the on line schools are merely providing transportation to their classes.
 
Donahue said:
You just misrepresented a situation so horribly that it seemed reasonable to ask.
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Coursera is being banned from Minnesota because its member universities haven't paid a $1,200 shakedown fee to the state. That's right there in the article. What is YOUR interpretation?
 
It should be noted that the state has since backed off, so this is no longer an issue. According to a note in the original link.

Still worthy of debate, though.
 
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