[1102] in UA Senate
MIT-Online Update
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Daniel Hawkins)
Wed Feb 16 15:32:10 2011
Reply-To: hwkns@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:32:07 -0500
From: Daniel Hawkins <hwkns@MIT.EDU>
To: "Alexandra Jordan (UA Chief of Staff)" <ua-chief@mit.edu>
Cc: UA Senate <ua-senate@mit.edu>,
MIT-online Students <mit-online-students@mit.edu>
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(This update is for the UA Chief of Staff but I have CC'd the UA Senate and
the student study group, because I thought you might be interested)
The MIT-Online faculty study group met with the Provost last week to get
some more direction and to get feedback on our "communication plan" (how
we're going to inform and get feedback from the MIT Community over the rest
of the semester). Part of the communication plan is a visit to the UA
Senate, possibly with the Provost in attendance as well.
He seemed pleasantly surprised with the work we had done so far, and he
seemed very hesitant to commit to any non-communication steps right now (he
told us to hold off on hiring a consultant to see what the online education
market looks like and measure the potential profitability of different
areas).
We talked about how our committee is putting OCW in an awkward place,
because they're running short on funds and have ideas for becoming
sustainable, but we're telling them to wait because we don't want whatever
they do to limit our options. The Provost acknowledged that this is the
case, and firmly committed to financially supporting OCW while we figure
things out. He said, "OCW is not becoming less important to MIT; in fact,
it is becoming *more* important."
I had planned to ask about his priorities, and if we should even be
considering ideas that are not profitable, but he got to it before I could
ask. He had a strong negative reaction to the word "market" in one of our
draft powerpoint slides. He said that talking about money steals focus and
stifles creativity. He said we should generate ideas that are *good for MIT
*, not ideas that make money, and that in the end he expects to be choosing
ideas to implement from a list of ~5, and *only then* should financial
feasibility come into play.
This is both a good thing (we *shouldn't* let finances interfere with our
generation of ideas) and a not-so-great thing (if there's a great idea that
costs money instead of making money, e.g., OCW, that doesn't mean MIT
shouldn't do it anyway; and if we haven't considered the fact that it won't
make money, we don't have the opportunity to distinguish it in the list of
~5 and make a case for why it's important). I plan to steer the student
study group toward identifying such worthy-but-costly ideas and creating
compelling arguments for them.
The student study group will be setting meeting times soon, so if you are
interested in joining the discussion, please let me know.
-hwkns
(Undergad rep to the faculty study group)
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(This update is for the UA Chief of Staff but I have CC'd the UA Senate=
and the student study group, because I thought you might be interested)<br=
><br><br>The MIT-Online faculty study group met with the Provost last week =
to get some more direction and to get feedback on our "communication p=
lan" (how we're going to inform and get feedback from the MIT Comm=
unity over the rest of the semester).=A0 Part of the communication plan is =
a visit to the UA Senate, possibly with the Provost in attendance as well.<=
br>
<br>He seemed pleasantly surprised with the work we had done so far, and he=
seemed very hesitant to commit to any non-communication steps right now (h=
e told us to hold off on hiring a consultant to see what the online educati=
on market looks like and measure the potential profitability of different a=
reas).<br>
<br>We talked about how our committee is putting OCW in an awkward place, b=
ecause they're running short on funds and have ideas for becoming susta=
inable, but we're telling them to wait because we don't want whatev=
er they do to limit our options.=A0 The Provost acknowledged that this is t=
he case, and firmly committed to financially supporting OCW while we figure=
things out.=A0 He said, "OCW is not becoming less important to MIT; i=
n fact, it is becoming <i>more</i> important."<br>
<br>I had planned to ask about his priorities, and if we should even be con=
sidering ideas that are not profitable, but he got to it before I could ask=
.=A0 He had a strong negative reaction to the word "market" in on=
e of our draft powerpoint slides.=A0 He said that talking about money steal=
s focus and stifles creativity.=A0 He said we should generate ideas that ar=
e <i>good for MIT</i>, not ideas that make money, and that in the end he ex=
pects to be choosing ideas to implement from a list of ~5, and <i>only then=
</i> should financial feasibility come into play.<br>
<br>This is both a good thing (we <i>shouldn't</i> let finances interfe=
re with our generation of ideas) and a not-so-great thing (if there's a=
great idea that costs money instead of making money, e.g., OCW, that doesn=
't mean MIT shouldn't do it anyway; and if we haven't considere=
d the fact that it won't make money, we don't have the opportunity =
to distinguish it in the list of ~5 and make a case for why it's import=
ant).=A0 I plan to steer the student study group toward identifying such wo=
rthy-but-costly ideas and creating compelling arguments for them.<br>
<br>The student study group will be setting meeting times soon, so if you a=
re interested in joining the discussion, please let me know.<br><br>-hwkns<=
br>(Undergad rep to the faculty study group)<br><div style=3D"padding: 0px;=
margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow: hidden; word-wrap: break-word=
; color: black; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 130%;">
</div>
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