Classes in the Time of Corona

As classes move online, we will realize that educational educations are not sacrosanct; the emperor wears no clothes.

I have long believed that the university education system and the schooling system, at least in its present form as we experience it, will be rendered obsolete by technology in due time.

I almost never paid attention in school, save for three teachers in total who I thought were interesting. Despite best efforts to the contrary, I continue to only [be able to] listen to classes that I find interesting. Classroom lectures, for one, are unspeakably slow. They meander, and the speaker often lacks the skill or charisma to make it worthwhile.

I also know the experience of being transfixed to a lecture, although it is a rare occurrence to come across such lectures in person. To that which I do find interesting in an academic sense, I have always actively given my time and effort. Increasingly, I find the internet to host more and more of such content. The scale of it is such that it is not only the largest library in history, a new kind of public square and a fourth pillar of democracy, but also the medium of what may be equivalent to the the next Gutenberg revolution — increased access to educational audio through recorded lectures, podcasts and audio books. Not only is the scale massive, but there is a distributed intelligence that plays itself out in sorting out this mass of information to identify what is worthwhile and making known the same. Suddenly, anyone from anywhere has access to the words of some of the smartest people in many areas of expertise.

Where once a Robert Sapolsky or a Michel Sandel would have been exposed to an elitist lecture hall of 300 (60 if they taught at NALSAR — which is where I study, a premiere Indian law school), they are now watched by the tens of millions. As more of such top-tier content becomes freely or cheaply available at a global scale, at some point, we are going to realize that listening to anyone else on the same subjects at a local educational facility is usually not worth the time. If it is your thing, like it is mine, you can listen to audio digitally at any speed, say 2x. I believe this general trend of the competition between teachers and their establishments being extended to a global scale to be a net positive.

There are still areas in which universities have a marked advantage, of course. I don’t think I could find something on the internet equivalent in quality to certain courses offered at NALSAR, or be able to get the same information through reading a reference book (say, on Indian Constitutionalism). Exclusive academic spaces of this sort, however, are bulwarks against an ocean. It is only a matter of time until educational institutions begin to leverage the internet and win at both scale and quality (Khan Academy is already better than most schools), with the market value of its students posing a real threat to that of those hailing from “premier” institutions like ours. Lambda School is an early example for post-school education, as are MOOCs, although they are less ambitious.

Now, with the Coronavirus situation, as a part of the college’s Academic Committee, as we work strenuously to facilitate a temporary NALSAR that exists online, I have to wonder if others will reach similar conclusions. I do wonder if, as people wake up at 8:55 and log into their first class from their bedrooms, some will realize the viability of, if not now, in the near future (assuming problems with access are successfully addressed), an online, digital education. I find that I no longer need to force myself to get comfortable with a classroom in which I have to sit at one spot for hours on end and wrestle with my mind to pay attention to soothe my conscience; I can suit my surroundings to whatever is most conducive to class. As I listen to class, I’m taking intermittent strolls, move to different rooms and at different times assume different postures, like I usually do while reading or actually working on something. Classroom engagement did not suffer — the chat window was, if anything, better than the usual as nobody can speak over anyone else, be overly annoying or have to battle their own shyness as much. After a day of online classes, I found I wasn’t alone in not having found it inferior to physical classes (could still be a minority view, we’ll know eventually).

I will go out on a limb and say what we experience now is an early form of what education will eventually look like. In fact, I look forward to the death of large parts of schooling which I believe to be a theft of the time of young individuals who often do not know any better and haven’t the power to choose to abstain from being forcibly subjected to an inefficient, outdated system that insults their intelligence. Eventually, the only utility of the physical-classroom-centric establishment will be to fulfill important supplementary roles to recorded lectures and reading material — guided discussion sessions, testing, socialization and the teaching of certain holistic skills.

When these strange times end, we will also see if the scourge of attendance (of which the University Grants Commission demands 75%) actually has any real world significance. Whether how things are done now are an aberration, a sign of things to come or an experience that will change how we do things, time will tell.