Open School
Open source software is software that can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. — The Open Source Initiative
There have been some proposals recently to make college tuition free at public universities [1]. President Obama proposed free community college tuition and Senator Bernie Sanders proposed free tuition to 4 year degree granting public universities. I would like to suggest an alternative I call “Open School”.
Open Schools could be built using the existing community college infrastructure. They would allow anyone to obtain an undergraduate degree regardless of their academic background or financial resources. There would still be a requirement to complete prerequisites with an acceptable grade in order to advance through a degree seeking program, however, students would be allowed to take and retake classes as often as they liked, over the course of as much time as needed. This approach should keep the window of opportunity for acquiring a college degree open throughout one’s life and with few obstacles compared to a traditional university. I propose that the cost of such a system would easily be offset by the improvements it would create for the economy and the culture in general.
The “Open” designation is not just in reference to the school being open to anyone — regardless of their academic past or financial resources. It also refers to the school being focused on open source technologies and open source educational materials. These might include software, hardware, course designs, teaching plans, kits, and textbooks. The focus on open source learning materials and technologies should attract many excellent, civic-minded participants, since the open source methodology should attract participants from some of the best academic programs in the world along with experts from industry.
The aim of an education based on the open source methodology is to create a culture of co-creators, as opposed to passive consumers. Successful students would not only consume the products of the open source community, they would learn to contribute themselves. This virtuous cycle should bring about substantial public goods.
Ideally, Open Schools would provide associates degrees, professional certification courses, GED, and full 4 year bachelor’s degrees for free. Perhaps online classes (e.g.Coursera.org, Edx.org, ) from traditional universities could be taken for credit to augment the faculty teaching at an Open School. In one incarnation, online classes could be taken at the student’s leisure, while Open School professors could work with the students as TA’s — grading homework and projects, answering questions, and administering tests. Over time, Open Schools may even add research departments and for a fee graduate studies. Many of the costs for graduate studies could perhaps be subsidized by student research positions that contribute to open source resources.
Today’s universities compete to attract students based on traditional notions of prestige and the promise of elevated social status. Open Schools could provide an alternative system that prides itself on the intellectual merits of the international open source community [2]: flexibility, openness and inclusion.
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/sen-bernie-sanders-wants-f…/
