This post was written by Hatchet columnist Dan Grover.
In the first week of classes, about 10,000 GW undergraduates trudge through the conventions of syllabus week. There’s learning outcomes to sleep through, concepts to review and professors to size up.
But learning can happen outside these conventions. And let’s start with making some more education free.
No, I’m not advocating for those buzzy massive open online courses. I’d like something a lot less pricey for GW to produce: free in-person lectures.
It could go something like this: Notable faculty could give a lecture on an academic area of their own expertise, with a question-and-answer session afterwards. Admission would be open to all interested students and free of charge. The goal would be to create an environment of learning outside the classroom, where students can learn about an area about which they are passionate or want to learn more.
Students stand to gain a lot from this. Not only will it offer niche lectures to students interested in a particular field, but also it will offer other students a chance to learn about a subject outside of their comfort zone without the responsibilities of tests, midterms and finals
It could guide undecided freshmen and sophomores toward a major, or even help someone pick up a minor. It would also serve as a sneak-peak of a professor’s teaching ability, getting a grasp of their style before actually enrolling in their class for a whole semester.
Universities like Yale give students an open shopping period for classes, while GW doesn’t. Free lectures would at least be the step in the right direction.
Many other universities, from the London School of Economics to Princeton to Carnegie Mellon and the University of Chicago, host a regular free lecture series, and they make it successful through a heavy marketing campaign. That’s company GW should want to be in.
To popularize the series, GW should include it in email blasts and put it on the website. But most importantly, GW should market free lectures from professors in the same series as the widely popular speakers from outside the University that give talks here.
Combining the myriad other speakers the University hosts with a public lecture series taught by professors would draw more students to attendance.
The University is already interested in free lecturing in the form of online classes. They’ve even appointed a vice provost to explore the merits of MOOCs.
But the intellectual connection that comes from a physical dialogue is unobtainable in a MOOC. If we’re going to look to democratize education online, we should do it in person, too.
