In order to accommodate the increasing number of undergraduate students, college and universities should offer most courses through distance learning, such as videotaped instruction that can be accessed through the Internet or cable television. Requiring students to appear at a designated time and place is no longer an effective or efficient way of teaching most undergraduate courses.
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your position with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
In response to the challenge of providing education for an expanding undergraduate population, one tempting solution is to replace university teachers and classrooms with distance learning technologies like the Internet or cable television. However, I believe that these technologies are best suited as valuable support resources, not as replacements for the traditional face-to-face classroom experience.
Admittedly, the Internet or cable television may be more cost-effective than traditional classrooms as means for quickly transmitting information to a large number of students. And, computer-generated standardized tests are a cheap way to assess information acquisition. However, there is much more to teaching than conveying information. Likewise, there is more to learning than a demonstrated ability to pass standardized tests.