Marginal Revolution University: Q&A with Alex Tabarrok

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Marginal Revolution University: Q&A with Alex Tabarrok

"The cost of education is going up. And we think that the online tools are going to allow people, including us, to do it - not just at a lower monetary cost -  but at a lower time cost as well," says Alex Tabarrok, professor of Economics at George Mason University. 

Tabarrok has helped launch a new online university called Marginal Revolution University (MRU).

Reason TV's Nick Gillespie talks with Alex about the future of online education at MRU.

About 4:40 minutes.

Produced by Amanda Winkler. Camera by Meredith Bragg and Jim Epstein

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Comments

[?-e]

They should really start adding STEM courses, nothing in this world is needed more than STEM people

[BoscoH]

I like this a lot, even if it's in an area I don't find terribly interesting. There are lots of colleges creating online courses that are just bottled up ways of selling the same stuff to their customers, er, students. But MRU and a few other endeavors represent an "open source" approach that invites everyone, and lets them mix and match what they want for whatever purpose they want. That will probably transform factory education, but will be a huge boon to self-learners. If they ever figure out credentialing, the spread among the educated will be much wider, and it should be easier to pick out the real stars.

[[e-mail]]

I hope MRU expands its functionality and offerings.

I think http://www.Coursera.org is a bit better right now, as it offers certifications for some of its courses, and has already partnered with several universities from around the world. There are video lectures, quizzes, assignments, and, oh yes, it's all free.

Maybe MRU will take a page out of Coursera's playbook and even add some innovation of its own. The future of low-cost (free) education looks pretty bright!