IP: Tech and Education - MIT View

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

The report of a committee on this topic charged by MIT
President Chuck Vest to explore the same issues in
relationship to the future of that institution.


[EDUCATION VIA ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES]


Final Report, MIT Committee on EVAT


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Medium-Range Recommendations


These recommendations can be started during the next twelve months. Other
pages contain short-range and long-range recommendations.


We recommend:


  1. Pedagogic Initiatives. Advanced technologies should enable new ways of
     teaching what we teach.
        o The Provost should establish a visible and prestigious
          Institute-wide competition among faculty for support of curriculum
          development projects that make effective pedagogical use of
          advanced technologies. The emphasis should be on projects with
          readily identified deliverables, actual classroom deployment, and
          a relatively short time required for completion and adoption.
          Between five and ten projects should be supported annually, at a
          total cost of $1M per year. The program should continue for at
          least three years. Project leaders should report to Academic
          Council and to the Faculty on their progress.
        o MIT should study the concept of collaboratively teaching our
          regular subjects with other universities, where there would be
          both students and teaching staff from each institution. Teaching
          staff could also come from industry and private practice. A few
          specific subjects should be taught that way in order to gain
          experience.
  2. Distance Learning. The advanced technologies studied by the committee
     enable and improve communications, and can thereby enhance the
     effectiveness of distance learning.
        o In order to investigate the opportunities and risks associated
          with remote delivery of our regular subjects, the EECS department
          should offer one regular subject to VI-A students at the plant,
          either during a summer or fall term. This offering should use all
          the advanced technologies available, not just the Web. As an
          alternative, a subject could be offered to students in the
          Engineering Internship Program or at the Chemical Engineering
          Practice School.
        o In a similar way, the proposed Systems Design and Management
          program, to be run jointly by the School of Engineering and the
          Sloan School, is encouraged to offer one regular MIT subject
          remotely to its students while at their companies. The degree of
          success of this experiment should be communicated to the faculty
          of the Institute.
        o MIT should investigate cross-registration of students at remote
          campuses. This could include both students of other universities
          taking our subjects using advanced technologies, and our students
          doing the same with their courses.
  3. Alumni/ae Relations. Our alumni/ae should be able to benefit from
     continuing MIT education. One long-range recommendation deals with this
     opportunity. Improved alumni/ae relations can benefit MIT and the
     alumni/ae in many ways even before extensive educational programs can
     be mounted.
        o The appropriate MIT units, probably Academic Computing and the
          Alumni/Alumnae Association, should explore mechanisms to give
          alumni/ae network access to materials, discussions,
          communications, and other online resources at MIT. These
          mechanisms may include MIT-provided services such as Athena
          access, commercial access, or some combination of the two. The
          analysis should include financial and business aspects.
  4. Academic Support. Our normal teaching program can benefit from the
     infusion of advanced technologies into the management of the effort.
        o All MIT subjects should have Web home pages, or at least
          Web-accessible descriptions linked to MIT's official Web pages.
          This might be done rather easily by converting what is now in
          TechInfo into a different format. Instructors of individual
          subjects could develop their own, more extensive, home pages,
          which could be linked to a centrally maintained set of pages.
        o Bibles (e.g., handouts, notes, problem sets, problem solutions,
          quizzes, final exams, and solutions) should be made available, on
          line, for all major subjects. The required templates, standards,
          and procedures should be developed by the Undergraduate Academic
          Affairs Office and the Libraries.
  5. Administrative Support. Advanced technologies should be used routinely
     in administrative procedures at MIT.
        o Web-based forms should be developed for use by the MIT community.
          Examples include student registration forms, applications for
          parking permits, add/drop cards, and student petitions. (One major
          problem with the use of such forms at this time is the lack of
          adequate authentication and security mechanisms.)
        o Newly admitted students, both high-school seniors and those
          accepted to graduate school, should be directed toward information
          on the Web specifically designed to help them decide whether to
          accept our admission offer. After acceptance, they should be
          provided electronic connectivity, such as Athena accounts, to make
          them feel part of the MIT community. These efforts should be
          organized by the Admissions Office for undergraduate admissions,
          and the departments for graduate admissions.
        o Student e-mail addresses are useful, unique identifiers. They
          should be routinely included in class lists and other lists of
          students, probably in place of the MIT IDs which are not generally
          as useful.


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This page revised June 12, 1995. Your comments about this report are
welcome.
To the Table of Contents. Copyright (c) 1995 Massachusetts Institute of
Technology


[EDUCATION VIA ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES]


Final Report, MIT Committee on EVAT


----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Long-Range Recommendations


These are not recommendations for action; they are recommendations for
study. The resulting programs require further study to verify feasibility,
and then more than a year for implementation. Other pages contain
short-range and medium-range recommendations.


The Committee recommends that MIT monitor carefully trends in advanced
technologies, which both offer opportunities and present risks.


  1. Lifelong Learning. Advanced technologies may permit effective distance
     education so that education in mid career become more feasible. A
     natural group to think of is our own alumni/ae, because they are known
     to us, and we are known to them. An extensive program of career-long
     education could be thought of in terms of various analogies. Several
     industries offer extended warranties or technical assistance, and make
     money doing so. In our case we might serve the needs of our graduates
     at the time they perceive those needs. We might offer upgrades to our
     graduates, to update the technical ideas they have in their minds. The
     analogy is to the software industry, which regularly issues software
     upgrades and invites customers to buy the latest version. Another
     metaphor is the Health Maintenance Organization. In our case, an
     Educational Maintenance Organization might emphasize preventing
     obsolescence by introducing alumni/ae to new ideas and new skills
     before their lack causes problems. Any of these models changes how we
     think of our students, from customers during an intense 4 or 5 year
     period, to that of partners in education, with a relationship lasting
     through the end of the their careers.
        o We recommend that, as a first step, electronic connectivity with
          our graduates be enhanced (this is one of our medium-term
          recommendations).
        o We recommend that an ad hoc faculty committee prepare plans for a
          pilot program in lifelong learning, using advanced technologies,
          for our alumni/ae, so that we can gain experience.
  2. Pre-Freshmen. Many high-school seniors who are accepted to MIT are
     capable of taking one of our freshman subjects. The opportunity to do
     this would increase the likelihood of their choosing MIT in preference
     to another university. The program would also increase the visibility
     of MIT in high schools and result in more qualified applicants.
        o We recommend a study of the feasibility of offering one or more of
          our freshman subjects remotely, to high-school seniors who have
          been admitted.
  3. Risks and Opportunities. MIT could easily misjudge the impact of
     advanced technologies if we are not prepared. If distance education
     becomes well understood by other universities but not us, we are at
     risk of losing our reputation as leaders in education. We might find
     ourselves competing on price with other universities in courses like
     our freshman subjects. Or, on the other hand, we might overlook the
     opportunity to capitalize on MIT's name recognition to market education
     programs for the large number of students who are qualified for MIT but
     whom we cannot admit for lack of space.
        o We recommend the development of plans for responding to dramatic
          future developments in advanced technologies, so that MIT is
          prepared to act decisively and rapidly as changes occur.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This page revised June 12, 1995. Your comments about this report are
welcome.
To the Table of Contents. Copyright (c) 1995 Massachusetts Institute of
Technology