Thoughts on online teaching

We've been going back and forth here about our online development. Dr. Williams is right now devp for the fall (Intermediate) and I'm going to do Banking in the Spring of '10. A recent decision of the Deans' Council requires that all online courses have online testing and no proctoring of any kind, so we're working around that stuff right now. Some of my colleagues in other areas (not finance) are struggling with that one -- they're concerned that it is impossible to maintain the same standards in online and F2F classes, and it's impossible to verify student identities. I'm not sure how we're going to fix it, but some fix has to be found.

It's an ongoing struggle to make our classes as complete as we can, and do all this other stuff too. Meanwhile, for those students who think online is going to be somehow easier than face-to-face, look out!

Comprehensive Financial Regulation Reform

Here's the latest from 1600 Penn. Ave. regarding reform of the evil and seditious financial system in this country.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124524649229423271.html

The actual proposal is here:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/finregfinal06172009.pdf

(or online at the White House I guess).

I just cruised through it quickly, and I could only find the word "subprime" used to connect to the weathered accusations that "predatory lenders" caused the recent housing problem. No mention of Freddie or Fannie activities promoting securitization of subprime to the detriment of portfolio risk, or the expansion of the housing market in response to political initiatives.

In fact, the proposal includes a couple of paragraphs (no sources cited) that tell us how CRA can't be blamed for subprime, etc. I guess if a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes truth. (And yes, I've looked into who REALLY said that, and I'm not sure I believe the IntraWeb, so I won't cite anyone here.)

Unfortunately, the thrust of this effort is to reign in 25 years of helpful broadening of the banking system by folks who don't really understand how things work. Diversification, geographic and otherwise, is necessary for financial stability. What ISN'T necessary is a Congress and/or administration trying to hand out money based on demographics and not repayment ability.

That's just one person's opinion, of course.