WASHINGTON POST: … These students, a sliver of the more than 1.7 million who have registered with Coursera since April, reflect a surge of interest this year in free online learning that could reshape higher education. The phenomenon puts big issues on the table: the growth of tuition, the role of a professor, the definition of a student, the value of a degree and even the mission of universities.
“Massive open online courses,” or MOOCs, have caught fire in academia. They offer, at no charge to anyone with Internet access, what was until now exclusive to those who earn college admission and pay tuition. Thirty-three prominent schools, including the universities of Virginia and Maryland, have enlisted to provide classes via Coursera.
For his seven-week course — which covers advanced math and statistics in the context of public health and biomedical sciences — Caffo posts video lectures, gives quizzes and homework, and monitors a student discussion forum. On the first day, the forum lit up with greetings from around the world. Heady stuff for a 39-year-old associate professor who is accomplished in his field but hardly a global academic celebrity… (more)
EDITOR: Some of the best educated individuals we know never made it through high school. These autodidacts made use of libraries, publicl events and more recently the Internet to educate themselves.
With open Internet enrollment at the world’s best universities, discomfort for formal education nor poverty and other obligations need never again be an obstacle to higher education.
One more note: In our entire career, no one ever asked to see or to check our liberal arts college diploma. Nor have we asked to see others. In many fields, it is what you know and how you present yourselve that count.
