Students enrolled at the University of the People, the first completely online, tuition-free university, will actually have an excuse to spend hours on Facebook.
The school, founded by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Reshef, will use social networking sites, including Facebook, to encourage a new method of learning that focuses on peer-to-peer teaching.
“While working in the Netherlands, I realized that with the new phenomena of social networking, people can actually help each other free of charge,” Reshef said. “I wanted to introduce these social behaviors into the University.”
Andrew Dillon, dean of UT’s School of Information and an Internet psychology expert, said utilizing Facebook or Twitter could help alleviate the sense of isolation some students feel when taking online courses.
“Social networking is a fact of life and all students use the tools,” Dillon said. “The real question is how to leverage the benefits and minimize the potential for distraction.”
The initial cost of the university was about $6 million. Reshef put up $1 million of his own money, and the school is accepting donations and fundraising to make up the other $5 million. There are no student fees for the first semester, but the school will eventually charge $10 to $100 for exam processing fees.
About 180 students are set to begin classes at the University of the People on Sept. 10.
By the second semester, which starts in November, the school anticipates at least 300 new students.
The school is not yet an accredited university, but it will seek accreditation after classes start. In the U.S., a college may offer classes and never actually earn accreditation.
“That’s a risk that the students must be willing to take,” Reshef said.
The four-year institution offers two bachelor degree tracks: business administration and computer science.
“We are really only at the beginning of understanding how learning might be enabled through technology, so it seems likely that we will see offerings expand in the years ahead,” Dillon said. “It seems unlikely that a university will be content to offer just two degrees if they believe there’s a market for more.”
More than 800 professors from around the world volunteer to teach online classes at the university in their free time out of their homes. The majority of them are based out of the U.S.
“In our research, when we asked students ‘Why do you spend so much time in the classroom?’ They usually said ‘Because we have to,’” Reshef said. “Online study is just as effective, and the students can study anytime and anywhere.”
UT is a predominantly in-person learning environment which offers some online networks for its students.
“There are online options through UT Extension and many faculty now offer computer-based support for learning through Web sites,” Dillon said.
The University of the People was not created to compete with existing colleges like UT and was not designed to bring in the traditional university student, Reshef said.
“We are there to bring an option for those who have no other option,” Reshef said. “If people can consider us instead of an established university, it would mean that we have failed.”
Online classes are not a substitute for the experience of living on and attending a university campus, Dillon said.
“They might offer similar programs,” he said. “But there’s a quality to campus life and the resulting educational experience that only comes from being immersed with your peers and faculty in the same space.”
