Well, now that I've got a handle on this blogging thing, I think I'm finally ready to get with the programme. I've had done with such old-fashioned notions as the history profession as guild, academic work as quasi-sacred calling, the university as a protected space offering an alternative to the values of the market. It's high time I signed on with the forces of corporate innovation. But I don't want to teach for $1000 a course. No, I'm starting to think big: I want to start my own online university.
So said I in early March. But here we are in early September, and I don't even have a business plan, never mind the capital that would enable me to launch my venture.
I now discover that someone else has beat me to the punch. Behold Adjunct College, where tuition is collected via Paypal. Now here's an interesting concept: "Adjunct College does not offer any college credit courses independently. Any and all accreditation depends on the cooperation-accreditation of members of the consortium that offer a given AC course." Though apparently the "flagship university" has "not yet been selected," while the "affiliate insitution" of Warnborough University has disappeared behind a "page not found." But Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither should we expect instant perfection of Adjunct College.
I still think there might be room for my own online institution of higher learning. But I'll need a name for it, of course: something that says "forward-looking and cutting-edge," but with at least a hint of gravitas thrown in to try and fake some prestige. Any suggestions?
CORRECTION:
I have found Warnborough University, which lists Adjunct College as an official learning center.
Posted by Invisible Adjunct at September 8, 2003 01:17 AMAs far as a name goes, my vote would be for:
The Saint Isidore of Seville Online Institute for the Correction and Training of Wayward Children of Privilege.
Posted by: Mike at September 8, 2003 04:39 AMAArrgh. The humanities -- and by extension, the university -- are dead dead dead, deader than the proverbial doorknob. Finito. Kaput. Done for. Yes, that means you, too Ms./Mr. Cult Studs, because you're even more boring and irrelevant than the rest. It doesn't matter if you teach via "Distance L'arnin", "online", whether your hi-paid or unpaid, or whathaveyou. It's Expired. Extinct. Ceased to be. It's time to do something else.
Write a book if you must, teach a class if you must, but for heaven's sake, spare us all and don't do it in the academic style.
Well, do you have a coat of arms? Adjunct U. has a great one.
Mike's idea has its merits, but I was thinking of something like "Secular Humanist Electronic University" with a major in Hemp Studies available. "Get a B.A. without leaving your basement apartment or putting on shoes."
Posted by: zizka at September 8, 2003 11:22 AMThe "Invisible College". (Unless Mary Gentle can claim the name, which seems unlikely.)
Posted by: clew at September 8, 2003 03:49 PMThe Academy of the Information Super Highway
the ads on the matchbooks could say:
Live Web Cams!!!
Cool Graphics!!!
Get Smart!!!
Enter our contest and win free tuition for a month!!!
(just go to www.goredidnotinventtheinternet.edu, click on the contest button, and type in any 250,000 word text that hasn't been entered before, and based on the accuracy of your data entry, you get free tuition!!!*)
*restrictions apply
Poor? Parents unemployed since 2001? Earn your very own computer through our motherboards for starving hordes program!!!
Could you start a College which ostensibly tutors, but actually ghost-writes student essays, with a pay for performance provision, based on grades and graduation? Maybe you could call it, "My Invisible Adjunct."
Posted by: The Happy Tutor at September 9, 2003 06:39 PMIsn't Warnborough College one of the notorious scam universities? Or was that your point?
Posted by: badgerbag at September 20, 2003 09:58 PMNo Warnborough University is not a scam. In fact I checked them out in Canterbury, and they had several classes underway. They prepare students for key UK professional examinations such as ACCA, CIM and CIMA. Also, they offer their own degree programmes, and all dissertations are evaluated by external examiners from other universities, mostly in the UK. It's a pity that there has been a lot of misinformation about this university in news groups. I know from colleagues that Warnborough graduates have been accepted into UK universities for further studies, so their standards must be acceptable.
Dr. Eric Moss
Posted by: Dr. Eric Moss at January 4, 2004 11:19 AM