Coursera should be subject of Mooc, says professor

By Chris Parr. A US academic has proposed creating a massive open online course on Coursera that explores the effect of the company’s business model on global higher education. Bob Meister, professor of social sciences and political thought at the University of California Santa Cruz, puts forward the idea in an open letter to Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller that criticises the Mooc platform.
“I would like to propose a new online course for you to make freely available through the Coursera platform. Its title is: ‘The Implications of Coursera’s For-Profit Business Model for Global Public Education,’” he says. The letter contains a diatribe against the organisation, criticising its funding from venture capitalists, the quality of its courses, and questioning its stated aim of increasing access to higher education. Read more...