By Geoffrey A. Fowler. College-level courses distributed free online have much more to do before they achieve their proponents' hopes of eliminating economic, geographic, racial and gender barriers to higher education, according to a University of Pennsylvania study published Wednesday.
The university surveyed nearly 35,000 students from more than 200 countries and territories who participated in the 32 massive open online courses, or MOOCs, it distributes through Coursera, the largest provider of the free courses. Researchers found that most... More...
The MOOC Backlash -- A Response
By Jonathan Haber. Some demanding Senior Year classes, coupled with a senior thesis I assigned myself, have kept me from posting here recently. But having started my Degree of Freedom One Year BA project in order to provide a student perspective to MOOC boosters ready to assault the walls of academia with little understanding of how well massive online courses were actually working, it's time to provide that same perspective to anti-MOOC zealots who have become a doppelganger of the under-informed MOOC champions they routinely decry. More...