https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B076DLBFN2
These notes are very sparse because I have been procrastinating on this forever and need to get it out the door so I can move on to other notes.
Reads as if every chapter was an independent paper - so lots of repeated content.
Built a university from scratch, free from prior mixed incentives and power structures.
Syllabus:
- First year - list of ~100 habits, framed as trigger-action pairs
- Second/third year - choose from cohesive set of modules rather than whatever prof wants
- Fourth year - list interests, , design your own syllabus with support of advisor
Online:
- Flipped classrooms - reading beforehand, discussion/exercises in online classroom
- Teacher has tools for guiding class eg form groups of three, who has spoken least.
- Tools can be triggered from lesson plan too
- Lesson plans designed with goal of >75% engagement. Whenever one person talking, lesson plan says what all the other students should be doing.
- Teacher reviews and annotates video afterwards for grading
- No campus, use local facilities => 1/2 price of ivy league despite much more contact time
Social:
- Cohorts of dunbars number
- Live together in different world cities each year
- Various social nudges to encourage tight network rather than cliques
Feels like a dramatic improvement on traditional education, although the actual assessment of this is not strong.
If I taught, the book might be very useful. As it is, it’s still interesting as an example of the stark difference between actually trying vs just going through the motions. Eg it’s well known that retention from passive lectures is terrible, but most schools still rely almost entirely on passive lectures for teaching.