Rather than taking on debt thru student loans could you find online volunteers to teach college (or guide) courses using materials from here?

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index. htm

I'd like to vote for this and the Mexican student sponsorship (with some controls to inhibit an earlier US experience with Savings and Loans, as I remember it being called). Both of these and the Prof's international credit service, which needs some work <g>, and would be a very interesting thread in its own right.

I like the outward reaching approach that all these promote..

Mark, that's a great idea, but in addition to learning material, one also goes to college to get the degree; the piece of paper that proves you took the classes. Without the degree many job opportunities are closed, even if you did the equivelant work and have the equivalent knowledge. Unfair, but in my experience, true. Perhaps there would be some way to work with UCSC to get college credit for courses learned in this fashion? And with enough credits, earn an acredited college degree, and/or maybe an opportunity to transfer in with undergraduate sophmore or junior standing after release with enough credits?

Mark Grimes said:

Rather than taking on debt thru student loans could you find online volunteers to teach college (or guide) courses using materials from here?

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index. htm

Ultimately, this is the idea - we want these inmates to have a decent chance at landing some kind of job when they are released, in the hopes that this will reduce their likelihood to be put back in prison, and based on statistics gathered this does seem to be the case.

In addition, we were told (rightfully so, I think) not to necessarily expect anything for free. We feel that by keeping the presence of the equipment in the actual classroom as minimally invasive as possible, we can give inmates a high quality education as if they were in class without having to bring in professors or rely on charity. As some have suggested it may eventually be possible to pre-record these classes, so that it is not necessary to stream each and every one - this depends on what the professor and college are comfortable with and what classes are offered when (we won't have copies of lectures until a class has been taught).

Lenore Cowen said:

Mark, that's a great idea, but in addition to learning material, one also goes to college to get the degree; the piece of paper that proves you took the classes. Without the degree many job opportunities are closed, even if you did the equivelant work and have the equivalent knowledge. Unfair, but in my experience, true. Perhaps there would be some way to work with UCSC to get college credit for courses learned in this fashion? And with enough credits, earn an acredited college degree, and/or maybe an opportunity to transfer in with undergraduate sophmore or junior standing after release with enough credits?

Mark Grimes said:

Rather than taking on debt thru student loans could you find online volunteers to teach college (or guide) courses using materials from here?

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index. htm

Note that there are many systems of education worldwide, and many different kinds of "degrees" and/or "certifications". For example, in a master/apprentice system, the apprentice "learns by doing" (and in part "pays for" the education by performing "simpler" tasks [for which the formal training is not a "prerequisite"]).

It would be interesting to find out if such forms of education (which seem to be less popular in the United States than elsewhere) would be recognized in some fashion as a "qualification" for performing such jobs (e.g. woodwork, cabinetmaking, etc.).

Here's "Europe's largest university" with the courses available to students in the USA:

http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/c ountries/USA.shtm