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e-Versity :)

A proposal of 'University-Education for All'

Welcome to this experimental page of free-online-university through the web. (Don't worry folks, this is not an experiment of the same kind with one made by Alan D. Sokal , who sent a parody article to 'Social Text' Journal, merely to show that -in his own words- 'the emperor has no clothes'.)

'e-Versity' stands for : a) electronic university, just as an e-mail; b) ever-learning society.

See our planned webpage form

Or see e-Versity conception from the personal side of view.

Contents:

a. Introduction
b. Objectives
c. Focused Market
d. Advantages
e. Disadvantages
f. Method of Education
g. Facilities
h. Alternative Funding Sources
i. A few word on the education concept
j. Implementation
k. Concluding remarks
l. Epilogue

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Introduction

We know well that these days we are facing the education era. Particularly in the beginning of high-tech society of 21st century, where people with less education is likely to live in less wealth condition too. (Though of course this is only a tendency, rather than an exact causality.) Unfortunately, in Asia most people could only have certain lower education, partially because of ever-increasing cost to obtain good higher-education. Meanwhile, Asian people will contribute to about 60% of world population in the next decade. Therefore we feel that there are enormous tasks to educate better Asian people (this is of course not to undervalue the education problems in Africa, Middle East, East Europe etc.). By removing obstacles to obtain higher-education, we could expect that in the long-run human quality improvement can be accelerated too.

Of course, by removing most obstacles to obtain quality education, we do not pretend to be able to remove all other human mysery. But we could fairly expect that people could be enabled to seek solution themselves once they have the appropriate knowledge to do so.

Considering the rapid growth of the internet (more than 100% per year and it can be expected to continue for the next several years) and tendency of decreasing telecommunication cost, education through the web is considered as the best available strategy up to this time to achieve this task. This website is intended as a vehicle to accomplish such a task at a continuously accelerated pace.

Besides, by doing so we could expect that we are making some contribution in preparing the next generation, perhaps similar with Japanese term 'shinjinrui': the new human species; whose time is coming.

Objectives

a. To deliver affordable, widely available, online university-level educational services.

b. To enable all people -but particularly Asian people- have the same chance to get access on higher-education at the same quality and at the lowest cost possible.

c. To stimulate an online intellectual discussion environment concerning how higher-education could be made accessible to wider society.

d. To encourage multi-culture communication among educators concerning higher-education priority, method, and agendas.

Focused Market

a. Asian people who has completed high-mid school level; but has no full-time or facilities required to afford higher education level;

b. Others who are interested in online university-level education.

Advantages

Of the real advantages offered by the proposed concept are that we could expect to remove some obstacles to obtain higher education for most people, e.g. :

a) Number obstacle: Traditional colleges usually could only have around several thousand students, but we in this web-college would talk about several million students at the same academic period. In terms of bytes, we talk no longer about kilobytes, but Mb. Of course, technology issue will be critical to achieve this target, particularly in bandwidth requirement, database management, as well as memory space.

b) Distance obstacle: Distance has been the best obstacle for most people to get reputable college. Furthermore, through web-college people can adjust their study-time from full-time to part-time depending on their situation and motivation. We should assume here that the availability of PC and internet connectivity in remote areas will spread rapidly in the coming years.

c) Language obstacle: Usually good and motivated candidates from Asian countries should spend their time to learn foreign language prior to be able to follow lectures in good (international) colleges. Through the web, we could expect that this obstacle can be removed. Considering the rapid growth of materials which is likely to occur, it is expected that there will be automated-language-translating engine to accomplish this task. In the meantime, manual translation services will be used.

d) Tuition fee obstacle: The ever-increasing tuition fee is the hardest obstacle to break, therefore most effort will be taken to remove it. A possibility is to arrange such concept that those who can't afford the tuition fee will be prioritised, but those who are able to afford it could also be accepted. Thus removing obstacle here is intended particularly for those that actually consider this as an obstacle. To achieve this target, we will prioritize the use of free virtual space on the web for memory storage. We also would develop links and co-operation with international foundations which have concerns at the same issues. 'Open-source' methodology will be explored wherever possible.

e) Age obstacle: Traditional colleges usually keep certain 'acceptable' range of age, partly to make a class feels comfort. In web-college, the same chance would be offered practically to anyone interested, even to those who do not belong to registered members. For example to high-school students who wants to know 'how it feels to get in a college class'. Tests also can be given to anyone who feels ready to pass the exams regardless of his/her age.

f) Time-lag obstacle: In conventional method, lecturers usually bring (established) knowledge which is several months or years too late from the current advancement. This is true since traditionally knowledge/information was packaged and delivered thru textbooks or periodicals which take at least several months for preparation, writing, editing, printing, reviewing, and distributing. Thru the web we could expect to bring 'real-time' (state-of-the-art) knowledge to the virtual classes. Even we could expect to arrange online discussion with experts to enable the class to see 'knowledge-in-the-making.'

Disadvantages

a) Personality: Though students could expect to meet someone whom they sent e-mail to, they should not expect to meet lecturer(s) actually too often. Thus personality (in terms of 'face-by-face' talk) should be a good advantage point for traditional colleges. A lecture/student ratio also will be a meaningless number for a web-college. However, the growth of video-phone technology is expected to partly compensate this disadvantage.

b) Unique: Usually reputable colleges have special 'images' on their unique 'touch' or approach on defining what a good-higher education should be. Inversely, the best that can be offered by a web-college is manufactured-like products which tasted the same anywhere. However, attempt would be made to encourage expression of diversity through online discussion forum, conferences, and publications/journals.

c) Socialisation: If education should be interpreted not only to know or to learn about something but also to live around 'the knowledge sources' (verstehen), of course traditional colleges offer better socialisation chance. There is few chance available today for web-college to overcome this disadvantage.

Method of Education

1. Conventional mail
2. e-mail newsletter
3. On-line publication/teaching material
4. Web-seminar/conference/lecture (distance learning)
5. Interactive online discussion with other members
6. e-magazine; periodicals; e-book

Facilities

1. All materials can be accessed free-of-charge once a student get a membership ID;
2. Tests/exams will be conducted at on-line basis;
3. Accreditation will be provided by certain reputable partner universities;
4. Teaching materials will be written by invited reputable lecturers, however teaching materials submitted by members will be considered;
5. Teaching materials can be corrected and reviewed by all lecturers and members; thus they will always reflect the state of the art of the knowledge, and can be expected to be more suitable and applicable for Asian people;
6. Teaching materials will be conducted on at least 5 largely-used Asian languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesia, and Malay - but of course this range can be extended -;
7. There would be on-line communication discount for all members to get access for this on-line free education;
8. Students who achieve excellent academic results will be recommended to certain reputable partner companies, or to continue their education process through scholarships to certain reputable universities.

Alternative funding sources

Since we talk about free on-line education, this is perhaps the most important matter to deal with. The possible sources are:

a) Links of partner (open) universities;
b) Links of partner enterprises;
c) Links of partner non-profit foundations who committed to higher-education improvement;
d) Advertising: particularly social, environmental, and educational advertising are welcome;
e) Students who are able to afford normal tuition fee;
f) Web-magazine subscribers;
g) e-books subscribers;
h) Professionals who feel that they get advantage from this website;
i) Consultation or research services;
j) Others.

There will be annual report sent to all organisations involved in financial support to enable them keep an eye on the progress achieved and also financial performance.

Since this effort is in very early stage, we highly appreciate all participants and sponsorship iniciatives.

A few word on the education concept

This method can be considered as only an extension of conventional 'open university' which is available at certain countries, where people can study at part-time and flexible manner through correspondence. The difference here is on the 'free-of-charge' and 'open-source' system. For the possibility of 'free-of-charge' concept we should thank to the 'shareware' method originator, while for the 'open-source' we should thank to Linus Torvald, the originator of both Linux OS as well as 'Open Source' method. In fact, e-Versity could be considered as a full-scale experiment of 'open-source' conception in higher-education field. (Though it may share several objectives or paradigms, we should note here that 'Open Source' method does not correspond directly with Popper's 'Open Society' or Andrei Linde's 'Open Universe' proposal.)

Though there have been free-net-based universities available now, we think that the services offered here are more specific and broad-reaching, especially for Asian people. Simply the education concept adopted here is "Education by all and for all." It means that we recognise that :

a. everyone in this earth has the same basic human right to get access on higher-education, regardless of his/her religious belief, economic-political orientation, ethnic-cultural background, or citizenship platform;

b. everyone in this earth has the same basic human responsibility to make the less educated people to have a better education. The concept of 'education by all' is not really new, since in traditional villages education is responsibility of and delivered by all society members. Thus what we propose is only an extension of this traditional practice (recycle the old concept) to this Global Village - of course with some modern touch. However, to maintain the quality of education we should have to select from all committed people, few persons who are really capable to deliver quality web-lectures;

c. with regard of b) the equally-distributed knowledge among mankind will ultimately lead to a better humanity, rather than raising the competition temperature among nations. Instead we could expect that nations could partially reduce their higher-education budget if they would like to solve their higher-education problems together, and reallocate them for other welfare purposes;

d. as the consequence of c) we believe that there are enormous sources of energy (apart of traditional sources) to be utilised once mankind get the required knowledge to do so, thus we think that it would be a good idea to accelerate such an evolution process in order to shorten the innovation cycle time;

e. the free-higher-education concept should not be considered as a 'direct competitor' to traditional college methods, since there are disadvantages that cannot be overcome by the proposed concept. Furthermore, what we attempt to do is only to realize the same higher-education chance for all, just as mankind receive the same sunshine everyday.

We expect that all members, fellows, and partners understand and agree the above concepts prior to decide to join us.

Implementation

The program is expected to be effective since mid 2000 year. The first web-lecture is expected to be accessible at July 2000. Those who think this idea is worth to continue please kindly send comments, critics, reviews, suggestions to the following address: victor c., address: e-versity@asia.com

Concluding remarks

Higher-education administrators usually have a good idiom to defend against critics upon the common trend of ever-increasing cost of higher-education, i.e. 'If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.'

To conclude this proposal, allow us to modify the above phrase to support our proposal, i.e. 'If you think education is expensive, try e-versity'.

Furthermore, while experimenting to deliver free-online-education, in accordance with Richard Feynman we believe that 'There is plenty of room at the bottom.' (Though his statement originally referred to the feasibility and possibility to build computer at molecular scale.)

Epilogue

Well, if after several times reading some convincing arguments above, you still think that the proposed idea looks more like an episode of 'mission impossible', please read it again with one or two glasses of scotch. I promise things would seem alright thereafter ...(no, it's only a joke, of course)

This is not to say that the idea above is not intended to be serious, but that this is too serious matter that we often neglect the straightest possible way to solve it.

Latest update: March 6th, 2000

Please drop a line to the following address:
webadministrator : victor c.
e-mail : e-versity@asia.com

Visit my homepage: Concerto

Sorry folks, this website is currently under construction. Please come back later ...

Wanted:

Of course, we would highly appreciate the contributions of voluntary educators, creative thinkers, frontier scientists, and also committed professionals who wish to devote their works for the above goals and objectives, and to fill the following positions:

a. e-lecturers
b. e-examiners
c. e-readers/associates
d. e-researchers
e. web designers
f. translators
g. e-librarians

(Fresh graduates are also encouraged to apply.)
PS: We know that an idea to deliver free-education is quite radical from ordinary commonsense viewpoint, but imagine the pleasure you'd get while questioning and redefining the old mainstream economics principles!

So, why don't send now your expression of interest indicating the position(s) you wish to fill to the same e-mail address above: e-versity@asia.com . Or simply fill out and send the form below; and please make sure to mention the position(s) you are interested in to make contributions.

FREE OFFER! For the first hundred 'content partners'/associates of e-versity, we offer free personal website design and hosting - directly linked to this webpage. Thus, send e-mail today!

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PS: Perhaps it's also a good example for you who wishes to learn how courses (or lectures) could be delivered freely through the web, just as e-Versity.

OPEN-SYSTEM RELATED LINKS

Following are several links related to open system and virtual library which may be of interest.

The WWW Virtual Library was a project of WWW Consortium , initiated by Tim Berners-Lee, himself, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and the Director of W3C.

Virtual Shareware Library
This shareware search engine (Shase) enables you to search descriptions, locate and download files from the Virtual Shareware Library which contains tens of thousands of programs.

Internet Computer Index (ICI).
An easy-to-use, free service that leads Internet users to all of the information available on the Internet relating to PCs, Macintoshes, and Unix computers. You can get the most up-to-date information including pointers to all Usenet news groups, mailing lists, Gopher and World Wide Web servers, anonymous FTP sites, and other Internet-specific resources.

The Computer-Mediated Communications Studies Centre is a non-profit, non-commercial, privately-created enterprise created for the benefit of its participants and as a public service to interested persons.

The "Grex" Open Computer Conference System.
From Cyberspace Communications Inc. This server contains descriptions of the purpose, ideals, bylaws and FAQ relating to this system. Information about how to access and use the system is also present. The system provides free access to conference software (PicoSpan), and many other services to the general public. The server also contains pointers to related systems and items of general interest to the community, along with documents belonging to users which they desire to make public.

Linux.
Linux is a complete, copylefted UN*X clone for Intel 386/486/Pentium machines. It includes Emacs, X11R5, gcc, TeX/LaTeX, groff, TCP/IP, SLIP, UUCP, the works.
Linux International a non-profit, volunteer-run organisation to support and sponsor the further development of the Linux operating system.
Linux Documentation Project Links to all the main information sources for Linux.
Frequently Asked Questions with Answers Hypertext version of the FAQ.
Fintronic Linux Systems Catalog Details of therewide range of options for a supported Linux system.

Mazama Software Labs, USA.
Advanced Internet applications for the Linux operating system. Including the Mazama Packet Filter, a Linux based firewall.

UniForum (tm). The international association of open systems professionals.

Network Economy

Scholarships Links

Virtual Job Search Links

AFFILIATE LINKS

Clicking through the following links could be another way to make contributions to achieve the above goals :

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