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I guess that since these MOOCs are essentially online study groups with very minimal direct interaction with professors/teaching assistants, it is very hard to

I guess that since these MOOCs are essentially online study groups with very minimal direct interaction with professors/teaching assistants, it is very hard to verify that a student actually did all the work without help from others. Since educations are essentially tickets to getting job interviews, the incentives for cheating are high. I think that is indeed a problem which needs to be addressed. Maybe by introducing course centers where participants can take an online exam under controlled conditions, i.e., in the presence of observers?

rowanseymour 13y ago
That seems to be direction that some organisations are taking MOOCs. I know here Rwanda, there's new pilot program called Kepler[1] which is going to use MOOCs as the primary teaching tool, but have students sit exams (under observation) for a "competency based" degree offered by a university in the US. [1] http://cloudmeetscampus.com/ http://cloudmeetscampus.com/
- ulrikrasmussen 13y ago
  That sounds interesting. From the home page, it even seems that the program offers housing with other students, giving them a good study environment. The tuition seems to be around $1000-$1500 - I don't know what the average income is in Rwanda, but I assume that this is manageable for most people?
  - rowanseymour 13y ago
    It's comparable to what local universities charge, and they have no problem attracting students - the quality of education might not be great but you need a degree for most government jobs, and other employers place a lot of weight on that piece of paper that says you're educated. The government also provides a lot of scholarships and loans.
  - barry-cotter 13y ago
    Hell no. GDP per capita is under 700 dollars.
vidarh 13y ago
Open University in the UK offers distance learning, but all exams are taken in person - the have long offered exam centres all over the world. They do also offer e-mail and phone contact with advisors for many courses, and for most courses grades also partially depend on assessment of mandatory assignments 2-4 times during the course. Of course this comes at a substantially higher cost than these MOOCs seems to do. Presumably there'll be space for some "in between" variations that offers monitoring of just the exams for example.

rowanseymour 13y ago

That seems to be direction that some organisations are taking MOOCs. I know here Rwanda, there's new pilot program called Kepler[1] which is going to use MOOCs as the primary teaching tool, but have students sit exams (under observation) for a "competency based" degree offered by a university in the US. [1] http://cloudmeetscampus.com/ http://cloudmeetscampus.com/

ulrikrasmussen 13y ago
That sounds interesting. From the home page, it even seems that the program offers housing with other students, giving them a good study environment. The tuition seems to be around $1000-$1500 - I don't know what the average income is in Rwanda, but I assume that this is manageable for most people?
- rowanseymour 13y ago
  It's comparable to what local universities charge, and they have no problem attracting students - the quality of education might not be great but you need a degree for most government jobs, and other employers place a lot of weight on that piece of paper that says you're educated. The government also provides a lot of scholarships and loans.
- barry-cotter 13y ago
  Hell no. GDP per capita is under 700 dollars.

vidarh 13y ago

Open University in the UK offers distance learning, but all exams are taken in person - the have long offered exam centres all over the world. They do also offer e-mail and phone contact with advisors for many courses, and for most courses grades also partially depend on assessment of mandatory assignments 2-4 times during the course. Of course this comes at a substantially higher cost than these MOOCs seems to do. Presumably there'll be space for some "in between" variations that offers monitoring of just the exams for example.