Networking supports MOOC success

By Sherrie Negrea. Michigan State University’s first massive open online course—Metropolitan Agriculture Value Creation—attracted 400 people from around the globe interested in learning about new ways to produce food in urban areas. Launched in March 2012, the course was built on a WordPress website and students communicated with one another via Facebook and Twitter. Although the MOOC successfully expanded the university’s network of students and scholars concerned with urban agriculture, it also raised some thorny and unanticipated questions: If MSU students took the course, should they get the same credits as the 50,000 other students on the East Lansing campus? And, should MSU students get credit for earning certificates or badges in MOOCs offered by other institutions? More...