31 replies to this topic

[paulc]

I am a relatively new member and have read many of the interesting comments by other members and am certainly very happy to have found the Institute and benefit from the information and knowledge that is shared here. From many of the threads I have read, I notice that members often want to learn more, and to contribute in some way towards the war on ageing. I even read those threads that suggest that all we do is write and talk here.

The Institute appears to have quite a few academics as members. For example, individuals such as Dr. Aubrey De Grey. We also have members like myself who are interested in gaining knowledge to further their interests, possibly even their careers in ageing research. Initially, I wondered if perhaps a mechanism whereby the Immortality Institute could encourage research, may be to offer honorary degrees to members who had done significant research and written papers of a certain standard.

But then I thought that how much better it would be, if the institute could become accredited to award higher degrees. It could both derive an income that could be used for future research and direct research to areas that are needed. There seem to be a number of members who are qualified to supervise such research and provided they would agree, the Institute could become a center for learning and research in ageing in addition to a communications platform between all strands of immortalism.

So I would like to throw this concept open to members for discussion.

[John Schloendorn]

institute could become accredited to award higher degrees

I have no idea how this works. Approximately how difficult would it be legally and practically, and how would one proceed to achieve this?

[paulc]

Where do you attend if you want to do get a degree in Biogerentology or Sociogerentology or Brain-Computer Interfacing?
I can’t say that I know all the answers here John. I was hoping that by the time other members had contributed and the dust finally settled, we would be able to formulate a plan to proceed. There are several educational organizations who would offer good advice and strategy how to make this work.
Firstly, I think that following debate we would have to have a consensus that the idea in principle would benefit the Institute, the members and most importantly our cause, that of stimulating further research in the direction needed. Secondly we would need to define our goals in terms of curriculum and research areas. Most importantly we would need initially the support from academics to review and supervise students research. I imagine that eventually the Institute could employ full time academics to do this and set up an infrastructure that would support both students and staff, since this could be funded by fees. Not all research requires a lab, but for that which does, agreements might be made with local colleges and universities. As to accreditation, the process can be reviewed at

http://www.ed.gov/ad...cred/index.html

I was very much hoping that my suggestion might provoke response from the academics and educational administration experts amongst our members. I do not imagine this would be an easy thing to do, but when I look at some of the On-Line Universities, it is obviously possible. As a matter of fact we may be able to work with at good On-Line University to help us set things up and in other areas such as curriculum development and internet support. I think once we are all agreed that this would be the right direction to take, then proceeding step by step we could eventually achieve our goal. I believe this would benefit our members, the Institute and most importantly develop researchers who are goal focused on the ageing problem.

[th3hegem0n]

I think this is the most farsighted and insightful idea I have ever read on the ImmInst forums.

That is, if it is feasible.

[th3hegem0n]

What would be required is finding the available man-power to instruct the courses, handle the logistics of making it happen, and obviously a number of initial students.

(currently there are still less than 200 full members)

[caliban]

Hello Paul thanks for you suggestion

We all agree that one of Imminst functions is to help people educate themselves.
Ways of improving that function need to be constantly investigated.

Issuing a certificate might be a feasible first step, anything else seems a bit unrealistic at this time.

In terms of taking this further, maybe you should collaborate with LazarusLong who is currently standing for re-election to the board. He has often mentioned that the education side is something he would like to develop.

[paulc]

Lazarus Long where are you? Tried to contact you by various methods to get your input on this.

[paulc]

help

[paulc]

Based on the limited responses here I can only assume that there is little interest in the idea of ImmInst sponsoring research by offering degrees like the on line establishments. But one or two individuals have expressed keen interest. I wonder how we could get this idea discussed a little further. Is there anybody out there who would consider being instructors or administrators to get this thing off the ground? Shall I contact an Online University and ask if they would be willing to work with us on curriculum and act as a host? Any ideas before this idea succumbs to involuntary death.

[John Schloendorn]

I suppose doing this and getting it right would need much more trained personnel than we can marshall at this time. But anyone out there with the right mindset and skill, feel free to prove me wrong.

[brizel]

I am a Board Certified Anti-Aging physician and have been involved in giving the oral boards for the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. I would be glad to assist in any way. I think the idea of a Immist certificate is a great way to start.

[John Schloendorn]

There we go [thumb]

[eternaltraveler]

i'm still working on teaching myself this stuff.... the idea of teaching others is still beyond me.

ask me again in 5 years

[paulc]

Thank you for your offer Brizel. I think for this to work effectively we need to somehow acquire the expertise needed to launch these courses on-line. I have written today to one of the on-line Universities to ask if there was a way we might work together in getting this off the ground. I will post their reply and we can all discuss further. I for one would be happy to give my time to work with them on the development of such a course.

[mitkat]

I am very excited by this idea. It would provide certified knowledge to many people, and we can all benefit from spreading the word with proper information

[Lazarus Long]

Paul this is wonderful suggestion and an idea that I strongly support but I also think we need to be methodical and approach it in clear definable stages. I have been in favor of this goal since the very beginning of the institute and I consider it one of the most important contributions we can make to accomplishing our mission.

First I suggest we try and organize an online course that can pass the process of accreditation and begin to develop a relationship with various schools to see if the course credits can be accepted. This would allow us to act as web extension for more than one school if the curriculum of the course (s) passed muster.

I also think we should develop an outreach to some of the graduate programs that some of us are already attending and see if we can develop a grant writing facet for this institute that could support the ideas of some of the members. By developing a grant writing team (something that will dwarf revenues from all other projects combined if successful) we could make an outreach to many philanthropic groups both for funding the development of a academic program and also perhaps our own sponsored research in a number of areas.

How we approach establishing ourselves academically will be based on what kinds of courses we design, who we outreach to, and what level of sophistication we intend to target initially but also long term.

I apologize to everyone and in particular Paul for not being able to participate sooner but I think the time is right now for this idea.

[paulc]

Great to have your insightful input Lazarus, there was a point back there, when I was beginning to flounder, glad your onboard now. You said, “First I suggest we try and organize an online course that can pass the process of accreditation” A couple of days ago I wrote to one of the bigger online private universities to get their feedback about working with us. Their reply was “Since your request is specifically of an academic nature, I have forwarded your request to our Provost for a response.” So we will see what kind of feedback we get, though this is only the beginning and there are many other schools I could eventually approach.
I like the idea of a grant writing facet too, but as you say Lazarus, one step at a time in clear definable stages. I will post the online university’s response as soon as I get it and then perhaps we could get some input on formulating a business plan, of how we may proceed.

[John Schloendorn]

This is wonderful! I wish I had time to help more. I can host occasional skype seminars on LysoSENS if required. These would be designed for those who wish to start such a project either in their degree or in the garage, with a strong focus on methods and minor focus on the "social engineering" side of getting an infrastructure in either of the two settings.

[paulc]

Thanks guys, we now have initial offers from prometheus, John and brizel, so perhaps if we can get the online University to work with us, we will have a vehicle to launch courses and utilize the offers of help that have been made. I spoke to the online University yesterday regarding working with us, and they advised that the Provost would be out this week, but would be able to contact me on his return next week beginning 2/20/06. So depending on what they propose, we may be able to have them present such online courses for us. Once we get an idea of how this might work, I can make a definite proposal to members on how we may proceed and then approach members for their input and help.

[paulc]

Do you mean could you provide courses in your area of interest? If so, I really think that would be ideal. Also, I think that in the case of courses that are research based, students would need to also follow their interests. I am from the UK originally and there as elsewhere in Europe, research students often design their own courses based around their research interests.

[Lazarus Long]

Bear in mind, paulc, is that much as I would like that these courses actually be accredited at this stage it is unlikely to happen and we will have to settle for the derived benefits to only be informally educational. Having said that, however, once we begin this process and can demonstrate that we can run courses online in a consistent manner that meets with requirements for accreditation of some sort then it brings us one (or more) steps closer to making the Immortality Institute a recognised educational institute.

While it is true that at the beginning we can provide this course at no credit on a volunteer basis it is also a very important way of testing our own program and methods.

I suggest that more interim evaluative means are required and also a rigid text outline that will require an associated text(s) of some sort. By incorporating a recognized text, existing curriculum requirements for targeted or specific subject material and approved testing guidelines we also improve our chances of gaining accreditation. We don't really have to reinvent the wheel to provide the kinds of basic courses we are discussing.

Once we have established the full course outline we can also take this to the Carnegie or other philanthropic organization that is funding education development as an outreach program to improve accessibility to education in poorer parts of the world. We could use the course as the central theme of a grant application and ourselves as the basic staff to run the program.

MIT happens to be offering free online courses now and there are others. You cannot receive credit from the open enrollment auditing structure unless you are enrolled at MIT I believe but you can participate and actually attend the course.

We would need to develop validation criteria for our tests and methods. Essays are good but also require grading scales so that the criteria are clear and objective. This is different than a traditional classroom environment as there might be various times of the day when teacher and/or assistant teachers (TA) are present online but certain times deadlines for giving assignments and submitting homework, taking exams and answering student needs must also be clear cut. I recommend using online video lectures that allow us to circumvent the copyright of using other peoples prepared video.

We can however use any open source material we deem appropriate from PLoS or Library of Congress, or any numerous sites that might give us permission. Keeping the first course simply is also important so it is easier for us to learn from the process and refine our technique quickly. TO do this we must be prepared to follow up on our students and determine how well our presentation prepares them for other programs later.

We might also develop a licensed relationship with an advanced textbook publisher to use their online resources if we are also asking our students to use the associated textbooks. However that kind of relationship needs to be formalized for our protection.

[brizel]

My suggestion would be a on-line course with multiple modules covering various subject matter pertinent to all facets of life extension. A suggested reading list would be developed and a ImmInst on-line library with links to landmark studies and research could be compiled. Following completion of the reading a on-line test can be administered. Upon passing of the examine a certificate would be be sent acknowledging that persons competency in the understanding of Life Extension/Transhumanism. This would be a first since I don't believe such a program exist. Since this forum brings together such a wide array of educated individuals from various disciplines the potential scope of this could be phenomenal.

[paulc]

Just to bring members up to date, I have had a very disappointing response from the online university I wrote to, in fact, I have had no response at all. So today I begun to research other possibilities of online universities that may be able to help us with our program.

[Live Forever]

Just to bring members up to date, I have had a very disappointing response from the online university I wrote to, in fact, I have had no response at all.  So today I begun to research other possibilities of online universities that may be able to help us with our program.

Keep up the good work, paulc!

[mitkat]

Great to hear you're still working on it Paul...too bad they didn't write back. This is the only online school that I have had totally positive experiences with, they are well recognized as a good school to get that last nagging university credit from if you're working full-time. They even offer full-time B.A degrees through distance education. It's another option, at least!

http://www.athabascau.ca/

[paulc]

Thanks, I will check them out and plan to keep at it, until I get someone to work with us.