ATOM Award of the Month, February 2017

After the inaugural award in January, a new month brings a new ATOM AotM.  This time, we go to an entirely different sector than we examined last time.  The award for this month goes to the collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology, Udacity, and AT&T to provide a fully accredited Masters of Science in Computer Science degree, for the very low price of $6700 on average. 

The disruption in education is a topic I have written about at length.  In essence, most education is just a transmission of commoditized information, that, like every other information technology, should be declining in cost.  However, the corrupt education industry has managed to burrow deep into the emotions of its customers, to such an extent that a rising price for a product of stagnant (often declining) quality is not even questioned.  For this reason, education is in a bubble that is already in the process of deflating.  

What the MSCS at GATech accomplishes is four-fold :

• Lowering the cost of the degree by almost an order of magnitude compared to the same degree as similarly-ranked schools
• Making the degree available without relocation to where the institution is physically located
• Scaling the degree to an eventual intake of 10,000 students, vs. just 300 that can attend a traditional in-residence program at GATech
• Establishing best practices for other departments at GATech, and other institutions, to implement in order to create a broader array of MOOC degree programs

After a slow start, enrollment now is reported to be over 3300 students, representing a significant fraction of students presently studying MS-level computer science at equal or higher ranked schools.  The only reason enrollment has not risen all the way up to the full 10,000 is due to insufficient resourcefulness in shopping around and implementing ATOM principles to greatly increase one's living standards through ATOM means.  Aside from perhaps the top two schools like MIT and Stanford, there is perhaps no greater value for money than the GATech MSCS, which will become apparent as the slower adopters drift towards the program, particularly from overseas.  

Eventually, the sheer size of enrollment will rapidly lead to GATech becoming a dominant alumni community within computer science, forcing other institutions to catch up.  When this competition lowers costs even further, we will see one of the most highly paid and future-proof professions being accessible at little or no cost.  When contrasted to the immense costs of attending medical or law school, many borderline students will pursue computer science ahead of professions with large student debt burdens, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of ever-more computer science and ATOM propagation.  The fact that one can enroll in the program from overseas will attract many students from countries that do not even have schools of GATech's caliber (i.e. most countries), generating local talent despite remote education.  

Crucially, this is strong evidence of how the ATOM always finds new ways to expand itself, since the field most essential to the feeding of the ATOM, computer science, is the one that found a way to greatly increase the number of people destined to work in it, by attacking both cost thresholds and enrollment volumes.  This is not a coincidence, because the ATOM always finds a way around anything that is inhibiting the growth of the ATOM, in this case, access to computer science training.  Subsequent to this, the ATOM can increase the productivity of education even in less ATOM-crucial fields medicine, law, business, and K-12, since the greatly expanded size of the computer science profession will provide entrepreneurs and expertise to make this happen.  This is how the ATOM captures an ever-growing share of the economy into rapidly-deflating technological fundamentals.   

As always, the ATOM AotM succeeds through reader suggestions, so feel free to suggest candidates.  Criteria include the size and scope of the disruption, how anti-technology the disrupted incumbent was, and an obvious improvement in the quality of a large number of lives through this disruption.  

Related :

The Education Disruption : 2015

11. Implementation of the ATOM Age for Individuals 

 

Comments

[Sunny]

I couldn't agree more.

The interesting dynamic, that could play out is how does the ecosystem develop. How do companies exploit this. A smart CIO could jump on this and train his employees for a fraction of standard training budget, assuming he still has one.

I still don't know what it does to the so called labor arbitrage industry from abroad Kartik, does it kill it and therefore Americans benefit. But if so, how does that happen. Do wages lower to compete globally, now that education is cheaper and there is no more need for a student loan ?.

Regardless, I couldn't agree more. As I said above, the ecosystem that develops will define what happens to our economy.

[Kartik Gada]

Sunny,

The volume of people in CompSci goes up, as people on the fence about CompSci vs. other fields choose CompSci for cost-savings. Note that someone with a Bachelor's in a different field of engineering can still do this MSCS, so a lot of mechanical, electrical, etc. engineers switch over.

The price of $6700 is cheap even for India. Hence, GATech-quality grads are dispersed globally in India, Russia, etc. without having to physically come to the US. It swells to become one of the largest and most dispersed alumni networks. This forces other institutions to follow suit.

[Sunny]

Brilliant !.

[Sunny]

By the way I sent this blog's information to Sen. Cornyn's office, my senator here in North Texas. Doing may part to get the word out. Although I am quite certain, to repeat what you wrote, the leadership won't wake up in time.

[Geoman]

What happens when corporations start to offer this as an employee benefit? They'll pick up the cost for the classes.

Think about it - great PR, great way to attract talent, and great return on investment for any corporation that uses it.

The next big field to fall into this - the on-line MBA. Next thing you will see is more and more companies requiring MBAs for anyone in management - since the cost in negligible.

[Sunny]

"A smart CIO could jump on this and train his employees for a fraction of standard training budget, assuming he still has one." from my comment above - we think alike Geoman.

[Stephen murray]

Scott Adams throws in his 2 cent

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/157947493551/free-college-online

Online learning is inching towards being a mainstream thing. I would suggest we are just past the peak of the brick and mortar institutions, and the decline will be rapid past 2020.

Long Live the ATOM

[Kartik Gada]

Stephen,

Thanks. Indeed, the peak is already passed, which is why the GATech MSCS deserves praise even if it still has only 3300 students. We just need a second program in a different subject and/or different institution, and then a third, etc.

The bigger savings would actually be the elimination of a bachelor's degree in CS, rather than an MSCS. Then move on to EE (figure out something for the lab work component), then MechE, etc...