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02/16/2004 Archived Entry: "Open U"

I'm reading ahead for next week's class - the chapter on the Open University in As if Learning Mattered - and an email from Kennedy Western University arrives in my inbox. Kennedy Western is the American response to the Open University. Only, where Miller describes how the OU failed and why, schools like Kennedy Western find ideas for profit: too easy access, education for the already educated who are looking for more upward mobility, lack of innovation regarding technology usage on students' part.

There's also stuff here for an idea I have - and may present on at WPA if I apply - on the "self service university." I got the idea from a university memo left in my box last week which described the university's goals of providing more self service for students (until when? instructors are gone?). Kennedy Western is one kind of self service university, a McDonald's for higher education. "No Class Room Attendance Required." Of course not. The drive through is always open.