University and WGBH Radio Present College 2.0: The New Face of College Education

Innovation Hub host Kara Miller and a panel of leading thinkers will look at escalating college cost, the impact of online courses and a future that might see competency tests replacing degrees.

Suffolk University will partner with WGBH radio’s Innovation Hub to present College 2.0: The New Face of College Education, which will explore technology’s dramatic effects on higher education. The program will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 4, at Suffolk University’s Modern Theatre. It will be recorded live for future broadcast on WGBH radio

Innovation Hub host Kara Miller and a panel of leading thinkers will look at whether college costs will continue to escalate, the impact of free online courses now being offered by colleges and universities across the globe, and whether competency tests might one day replace the traditional four-year degree.

Panelists for College 2.0: The New Face of College Education are:

  • Richard Miller: President of Olin College
  • Anant Agarwal: President of edX
  • Eric Mazur: Professor of Physics at Harvard University and one of the world's pioneers in flipping the classroom
  • Peter Hopkins: President of Big Think, which has launched at Yale, Bard and Harvard

Suffolk University President James McCarthy will deliver opening remarks. McCarthy is a proponent of integrating online education with traditional classroom teaching and was involved in a national research project that demonstrated that teaching students through hybrid courses – which combine face-to-face and online teaching – is highly effective.

“We have entered an era when it is just as important for our graduates to be as well versed in using technology to learn as they are in verbal communication and written analysis,” said McCarthy.

Innovation Hub airs at 10 a.m. Saturdays on WGBH 89.7 and encores at 9 p.m. Thursdays. Miller is the creator, host and co-producer of Innovation Hub, which features creative thinkers in culture, science, medicine and education. The show is featured on WGBH’s Morning Edition and Boston Public Radio. A limited number of tickets are available for College 2.0.