Some ideas in the education section have discussed the notion of a virtual university, perhaps as a way of reducing costs, improving quality, or accomodating to student needs.. A virtual university would provide education via electronic media such as phone or the web. Perhaps the virtual university would evaluate students in their own locations and award recognized degrees. Or it might provide instruction in support of selected courses at local colleges and junior colleges. Then they would collect the tuition, provide the evaluation, and award the degrees.
Most of the required parts already exist. The Teaching Company has collected lectures from well-qualified lecturers and marketed them on tape, CD's, and DVD's. Many of these cover standard college courses, are quite suitable for use while commuting, and could easily be transferred to and Ipod or laptop. The University of Phoenix already offers an extensive online curriculum, but is primarily aimed at people who are already employed. A number of other schools offer online courses for academic credit. Many universities offer course credit and advanced placement to students who can pass an appropriate test in the relevant subject.
Thus at least part of a wired education is already available for enterprising students who will look for it and work out the details. What seems to be missing is an entrepreneur who will put together a marketable package that works out the details and presents a finished solution to the people who want it. This could be college freshmen, high schools, people in home schoolling. It could also be junior colleges and small colleges who want to expand their offerings without expanding their faculty.
A marketable package would not have to be a full curriculurm. For example, independent language learning has a long and respectable history. Linguaphone and others have offered courses on records, tapes, and CD's for many years. With a quick Google, I found a website that presents links to 30,000 online websites that are related to learning foreign languages. The minor detail to be worked out: If I want to get college credit for say Spanish, how do I choose among the hundred or so sites I find in that category?
So who wants to be an entrepreneur?
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it's a great idea, as discussed by Buckminster Fuller in "Education Automation" http://www.bfi.org/education_automation.htmandPersonalized System of Instruction (PSI, also known as the Keller plan).In effect these systems have already been talked about, we just haven't seen any action (except for the rapidly growth of home-schooling)
It's existed for decades.
See: Open University.