Letters: Higher ed on the Web

Re “Big boost for online higher ed,” March 14

Online education is the fast food of learning, the opposite of small classes with meaningful interaction between professors and their students.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) should instead focus on replacing large lecture classes, freeing up professors to spend more time with more students in smaller sessions where the online lectures could be debated, questions addressed and interaction would help students assimilate knowledge. It’s better than replacing classes wholesale and encouraging a system where professors and students have little or no contact.

Instead of focusing on pushing more students through the system, Steinberg might want to put more energy into requiring higher entry standards at all levels of the California public college system. Californians would be better off paying fewer taxes than paying for more students to get a lesson in mediocrity.

Gary Hoffman

Huntington Beach

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