[game_edu] Online-only degrees (was Re: Where to post academic job offers?)

[Roberts, Scott]

Stacey, if all academia was as bad as you make it out to be I sure wouldn't be there, and if your school is really that bad you should get out quick!

With all the obvious exceptions like CMU, Georgia Tech, USC, RIT, MSU, UCF, SMU, Simon Fraser, UCSD, NC State, etc. (sorry to leave anyone out, this is just off the top of my head), these broad stereotypes are better suited for the world of Dean Wormer.

Scott

Scott Roberts
Associate Professor
DePaul University
sroberts at cti.depaul.edu<mailto:sroberts at cti.depaul.edu>



From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Stacey Simmons
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 1:08 PM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Online-only degrees (was Re: Where to post academic job offers?)

Hi Ian!

Speaking as someone who lives in the world of academics, and deals with online education- I can honestly say that there is a built in bias on the part of academics against online degree programs.  To me this is somewhat faulty- but I think I can briefly address the good and the bad.


> Universities idealize themselves as a place where discourse advances the course of knowledge.  Therefore the idea of a student who "takes in" information and regurgitates it back- is against their "ideology" regardless of the fact that- the method used in universities often has exactly this effect.  The opportunity for exchange in most univsersities is more important than the actual method of learning.  And too often students don't have the opportunity to experience this exchange until they are pursuing a graduate degree (if they're lucky).



> Professors consider themselves to be experts, and they often have a myopic bias about the importance of their contribution, and their role in the discipline.  Therefore, the idea that someone could learn WITHOUT them completely flies in the face of their often very fragile egos.



> Academics do rightly pride themselves on being the gatekeepers of information.  I say this fully aware that it may send some folks into a tailspin.  However, in academia- whether they are adhered to or not, whether they are considered contributions or detractions, the academic rigor expected of folks who pursue advanced degrees, does create a system that carefully guards (in most cases) the distribution of knowledge.  Please note that for most academics this is knowledge for its own sake (even if it is often myopic, one-sided, or god-forbid, blind).  The idea is that knowledge must be pursued for its own sake, and not for the sake of profit, or as we have seen in the last few years with some for-profit institutions (in the U.S. primarily) profiteering.



> On the down side, academics also do not give appropriate concern to the "real" world in most instances.  They focus on the theoretical because most of them have never had a job that wasn't somehow connected to their education.  This gives many (not all) academics a bias against the "real world" as they see it as all application and no innovation.  Unfortunately in the game and digital media disciplines this means that many faculty members have isolated themselves, not realizing that a great deal of innovation happens in studios, corporations and developers- and that they'll never have access to it because it is privately held IP- such is the disconnect.


I know I have not answered your question.  I think that academics will come around- the best opportunity for someone  with a great deal of experience and an online degree is to start publishing papers in academic journals.  That is the standard for academic acceptance.  If you are an academic with a PhD from Harvard and never publish, you will not earn the respect of your peers.  If you have a PhD from Podunkin' University and have published in Science or ACM, you will be respected as a world-leading expert.

Such is my experience anyway.

Stacey


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