Harvard Alumni-only MOOCs, Pearson-based Badges, and Flappy Bert

By Audrey Watters. Copy-and-pasted from the press release here without comment: “Soundview Executive Book Summaries®, the leader in executive education and corporate training, announced today the launch of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) via its sister company, SoundviewPro.”
According to Bloomberg, “Massive Online Education Gets Less Massive.” You know, sorta like “online education” or something.
Similarly, I never know if I should put the online education startup NovoEd in this MOOC category as it focuses on small private online groups and courses. Anyhoo. It announced that it was expanding its partnerships this week to 16 new institutions, including Stanford, Princeton, University of Michigan, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Students at Cornell University and UT Austin aren’t so keen on MOOCs, reports Inside Higher Ed, which draws on stories in student newspapers. “The university hasn’t laid out long-term goals for the MOOCs, and the numbers don’t bode particularly well for the courses’ overall success,” one editorial reads. “We’re confused as to why an unproven and unused educational experiment that isn’t even aimed at UT students is something the system feels they should continue funding.”
HarvardX will launch MOOCs exclusive to Harvard alumni this spring, says The Harvard Crimson. Because “open.” More...