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• Unanswered Questions about University of the People

  “Education is the movement from darkness to light.” — Allan Bloom

  What if there were a distance learning university one could attend for free?  Well, we're not exactly there, but there's an interesting initiative called University of the People that has that attracted some attention for itself, for example in this article from BusinessWeek.  The idea is just as it sounds, that distance learning programs will be made available, and that students won't have to pay.  There seems to be a focus on students in low and middle income countries, but those aren't the only ones who are welcome to apply.

  Obviously the concept is intriguing to many, myself included, but there are a few unanswered questions here, and even going through the institution's web site doesn't always lead to very good answers.  The most glaring of these are a pair of related issues: where they are located, and what that means for their accreditation status.  In the FAQ, their answer for where they are located is, "With a convenient virtual address, www.uopeople.org, University of the People is accessible anywhere a computer and Internet connection exists. The students and Instructors represent a diverse group coming from both developing and developed countries."  Yes, thanks, we're aware of how the Internet works.  But where is the institution's offices?  They do have a contact us page that lists an address in Pasadena, California, but that address is that of a secretarial service, it's not real office space.  Meanwhile the web server is in Haifa, Israel.

  Now, while I'm pretty progressive on this, I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with a small institution not owning or leasing commercial office space.  It's entirely possible for an online institution to operate with entirely distributed personnel.  But referring to a secretarial service as one's "Office of Admissions" rather than simply as one's mailing address is a bit too off the mark for me.  Similarly, there's nothing wrong with having one's server and one's people in different places, but considering that the founder of University of the People is from Israel, it makes me wonder whether the institution is better described as Israeli or Californian.

  Personally, I think either place would be perfectly fine for setting up a distance learning institution.  But where University of the People really is located makes a difference because it determines where they may, someday, be eligible for accreditation.  As a new institution they are currently unaccredited, and that doesn't bother me either — by definition all new institutions start that way.  But their site says that "University of the People plans to apply for accreditation and for authorization from recognized agencies and authorities in accordance with the rules, regulations and relevant timelines of those agencies and authorities."  Those were a lot of words in a row, but I'm not sure they actually said anything.  It certainly didn't shed any light on their location.

  I'm not harping on these points to be critical. I want to like University of the People, they seem like they have a great mission and could be a boon to the world if they can get into high gear.  But being more up front about these sorts of things is important to building a reputation for being trustworthy, and for a new school that's critical.  It's even more important for an institution that seemingly plans to rely on donations and partnerships for its funding.  And they're the sorts of questions that students should be able to answer before making a decision which institution to attend; after all, even if they're not investing money, they're still investing time.

  

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• Review: 'The E-Learning Handbook: Past Promises, Present Challenges,' by Saul Carliner and Patti Shank The E-Learning Handbook covers the good, the bad, and the ugly of e-learning and provides a glimpse into the industry's future. The Handbook provides a broad look at the past expectations of e-learning and then follows up those expectations with myriad instructions, ideas, and concepts to carry the industry forward.
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• Find the Best Online University for You Search our online university rankings and ratings below in order to select the best online university for your needs, then use the links to request a free information packet from that school: Kaplan University ? Kaplan University online is the...
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