Panel discussion: Will the Internet Destroy University Education?

On July 1, at 20:30, a panel discussion was held in the conference room of the Digital October Center on the topic: “Will the Internet destroy university education?” The event was organized as part of the Vladimir Potanin Charity Fund School, an annual final of the scholarship competition that brings together scholarship holders and grantees from the Foundation out of 75 leading state and non-state universities of Russia.

As experts, the discussion was attended by Dmitry Peskov , Director of the Young Professionals Department of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives , Dmitry Repin , Digital October Director General , Elena Tikhomirova , Director of the eLearning Center , and Skolkovo Moscow School of Management Project Office CoordinatorAlexey Falaleev and founder of the Universarium project Dmitry Guzhelya .

The experts were honorably opposed by 300 student winners of the Scholarship Contest of the current year, as well as 50 teachers who received the right to a grant following the results of the Grant Competition.

• In the course of the discussion, the audience is expectedly divided into two camps, some claim that the classical methods and approaches to education are not fading, the second, including many experts, say that classical education has no chance in the face of such “titans” as the Universarium, Сoursera and others.
• Many scholars call critical the shortcomings of online education, such as the lack of kinesthetic sensations, empathy and competition between participants in the educational process. It is noteworthy that the presence of these factors is also a virtue of the classical education system.
• There is a suspicion that online education may not be what they try to pass it off - i.e. perhaps this is not a high-tech product, but just a kind of surrogate, an ersatz substitute for the less privileged masses of the population.
• All participants agree that the Internet and online education will certainly not kill university education, but it is very likely that they will lead to total changes in this area by the end of the next decade.