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Do most people learn well from traditional methods though? If dropping out of a MOOC involved a big financial hit, social humiliation, and the loss of a great

Do most people learn well from traditional methods though? If dropping out of a MOOC involved a big financial hit, social humiliation, and the loss of a great deal of personal freedom, the completion rates would skyrocket. Completely different incentives. The reasoning that traditional education is successful because it has high completion rates because of external pressures is a bit circular, isn't it?

austenallred 9y ago
Perhaps. The question is which of those things really move the needle; can you have some, not all? For example, our completion rates are 90%+ - better than universities, but there is no social humiliation, loss of personal freedom, or financial hit.
- throwawayjava 9y ago
  What is the typical demographic of your cohorts? How do you compare to college programs that have similar cohort demographics? I think all educational outcomes should be measured with respect to the answers to these two questions. K12 schools in extremely wealthy areas can compare themselves to like peers, but comparing themselves to high-poverty areas is a useless comparison. Neither institution would do well under the other's constraints. For-profit higher ed is definitely the same way.
  - austenallred 9y ago
    We're very spread out, general lower income, more black/latinx than white, so it's not a case of us just grabbing the rich kids.
nsgi 9y ago
It also works the other way. It's socially/professionally acceptable to stop working for 3/4 years to go to university, somewhat less so to stop working to take a bunch of MOOCs. Therefore, most people taking MOOCs are also working full time/studying/looking for a job, and they're also likely to be older and have more life commitments than most students. So MOOCs are naturally going to take a back seat to everything else going on in a person's life. They also don't carry the same recognition as having a degree. MOOCs also come with a number of unique advantages compared to traditional universities: - They widen access to education to people that aren't able to attend university - People can take courses they know they might struggle with without fear of flunking them and harming their academic record - Mature students don't need to make life sacrifices in order to take a MOOC. They don't have the dilemma of whether to up roots and move to attend a prestigious university

austenallred 9y ago

Perhaps. The question is which of those things really move the needle; can you have some, not all? For example, our completion rates are 90%+ - better than universities, but there is no social humiliation, loss of personal freedom, or financial hit.

throwawayjava 9y ago
What is the typical demographic of your cohorts? How do you compare to college programs that have similar cohort demographics? I think all educational outcomes should be measured with respect to the answers to these two questions. K12 schools in extremely wealthy areas can compare themselves to like peers, but comparing themselves to high-poverty areas is a useless comparison. Neither institution would do well under the other's constraints. For-profit higher ed is definitely the same way.
- austenallred 9y ago
  We're very spread out, general lower income, more black/latinx than white, so it's not a case of us just grabbing the rich kids.

nsgi 9y ago

It also works the other way. It's socially/professionally acceptable to stop working for 3/4 years to go to university, somewhat less so to stop working to take a bunch of MOOCs. Therefore, most people taking MOOCs are also working full time/studying/looking for a job, and they're also likely to be older and have more life commitments than most students. So MOOCs are naturally going to take a back seat to everything else going on in a person's life. They also don't carry the same recognition as having a degree. MOOCs also come with a number of unique advantages compared to traditional universities: - They widen access to education to people that aren't able to attend university - People can take courses they know they might struggle with without fear of flunking them and harming their academic record - Mature students don't need to make life sacrifices in order to take a MOOC. They don't have the dilemma of whether to up roots and move to attend a prestigious university