The Minerva Project, an intriguing concept which bills itself as the world’s “first online Ivy League University”, has been making some news lately.  The idea, in a nutshell, is this: the Minerva will all be taught online, with curricula designed by “the world’s top professors” (yawn), but classes taught by some of America’s many talented, but underemployed (and hence cheap) sessionals.  We aren’t talking MOOCs here – these classes will be limited to 25 students each, so as to maximize teacher-student interaction.  The project’s leaders say that the lack of a physical campus and reliance on sessional delivery will make it possible to invest in the best learning analytics software; Minerva will “personalize” each student’s education, giving students an Ivy-level education in Arts and Science, for half the price.

So far, so not-very-revolutionary.  But here’s the interesting bit: the students will all live together, so that the important aspects of peer learning in residential colleges won’t be lost.  And the twist is that they’ll live together while rotating through different spots around the world: Paris, Beijing, São Paulo, etc., for months at a time.

Cool.

Now, much of this scheme is undoubtedly nonsensical.  There’s absolutely no way to develop Science programs without decent labs.  And outside some intro courses in stats, psych, and languages, learning analytics software in the Arts is useless.   But the idea of a travelling classroom with immersions in multiple languages and cultures is exciting.  I don’t know how it would be accredited (whose laws apply?), and I expect that mitigating the liability issues that arise from sending a bunch of 18 year-old Americans to go live in Abu Dhabi, or wherever, will end up costing more than these guys think, but a truly global classroom allied to a truly global curriculum could be a huge selling feature for any school.

In fact, it’s such a cool feature that there’s really no need to bother with the whole online jive.  The “curriculum developed by world-class professors” thing is oversold; loads of universities in Gulf countries claim to have MIT- or Harvard-developed curricula, and they’re not bursting with Ivy-calibre graduates.  If you’re going to rely on sessionals for delivery, why not send them abroad, too?  It might cost a bit more, but you’d save on software and get rid of the online stigma, as well.  In fact, any medium-sized liberal arts college in Canada – Trent, say – could probably pull something like this off, greatly enhance their brand, and make a bit of money, while they’re at it.

But an “online Ivy”?  Not going to happen.  It’s a crazy idea.  But thank God almighty, at least someone’s had a new thought in higher education that doesn’t involve a MOOC.