The catalogs need to keep their offerings sounding contemporary for the most part, to meet prospects where they are, in terms of the current street talk amongst the vulgate. Not that everyone speaks the same vulgate. Marketing must be tailored to be effective, unless appealing to universals, which of course most commercials do at some level.
Once enrolled in say Systems Design, one encounters the syllabus around which other experiences, such as meetups and lectures might be built. Typically a cafeteria style catalog based system, such as a university, will give a try-before-you-buy grace period.
Dive in, get a good sense of it, and then decide; feel free to bail. I’m accustomed to such a system. A further nuance: sticking around to audit but not committing oneself to time/energy requirements, either in terms of tuition (although audit fees may pertain, as at a rock concert) or in terms of meeting deadlines and having a recorded grade.
Typically, a prospect will have ways to survey a course without taking the probationary step as even just that step may look like an unnecessary detour in the rear view mirror. “Can’t I just read ahead myself, as an autodidact, like I’m used to doing, and not submit to your no doubt tiresome lectures?” Yes, of course, that’s where async comes in.
A perennial problem with a bell curve classroom is the presenter is expected to accommodate whatever dimensions the real time attenders bring to the space. I call that a “problem” more from the standpoint of an attender with high aptitude who feels the presenter is slowing it all down for the benefit of other attenders.
This type of frustration is standard in classrooms, but may not be a problem for a professional presenter as their job is to distribute the frustration load such that all payees (assuming a fee) get their share (frustration builds competence), or, if there’s no fee, people stand to gain according to their own level of investment i.e. the presenter isn’t there to “put a lid on it” in terms of value, and yet every session is capped in terms of meeting some average benchmarks. From the standpoint of the slower, the process may seem equally unfair as the presenter moves on to the next segment, unconcerned about some not getting it.
The async curriculum is less about presenter classrooms, although these remain important, and more about how a curriculum might be explored in between more formal synchronous meetups. The word “homework” comes with the lame connotation of “assigned” whereas “the freedom to wander” (more like “play”) is what a home sweet home should provide. It’s not for anyone else to dictate what a given PWS wants to dive into (PWS = personal workspace; picture a work-study studio).
Do I ever get around to Martin Buber in my curriculum for example? In my own career as a browser with a browser history I’d likely reflect back on my time as a student under Walter Kaufmann at Princeton, as he talked about Buber quite a bit. Buber was definitely on the syllabus.
Kaufmann didn’t like “thou” as a pronoun anymore than he liked “superman” as a translation for “uber-mensch” or whatever Zarathustra was on about. He preferred a straight “you” so “I and You” (thinking Buber) and for “superman” he went with “overman” as “uber” goes with “over” quite frequently (overseer = supervisor).
OK so I had Walter Kaufmann as a professor, that might put me on some mental maps. Does that mean I also link to Kierkegaard in my syllabus? Questions like that.
“What does the School of Tomorrow do for me, in terms of extending my sense of orientation within some vista?”
That’s a question each prospect needs to ask as its own “me ball” i.e. as an avatar within said system (curriculum). The decision might be: not now, but I’ll come back later for a second look. That’s perfectly reasonable.
“Incommensurability” is another hook.
