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MOOCs can't expect to replace universities right now, it just won't happen. But if they integrate their platforms in a way to HELP college students and even adu

MOOCs can't expect to replace universities right now, it just won't happen. But if they integrate their platforms in a way to HELP college students and even adults, their popularity will blow up so that in the future, it will be more realistic to think that MOOCs may be THE go-to for a higher level education. Focusing on the college population and growing that is the best way to begin...being ubiquitous from the start has not and will not work, it's just too big of a problem. There are two large problems with MOOCs right now that are documented in the article but not well enough supported IMO: 1) There are no transferrable credits to colleges and 2) They are free. And the two problems go unsurprisingly hand in hand, and they both have to be solved simultaneously if MOOCs are going to work. The ideal scenario would be that each course costs somewhere around $150 and courses can be transferred WITH credits to as many accredited institutions as possible. Why? Well firstly, once you pay for something, the average persons's conscious will naturally have that commitment in the back of their minds and will not want the investment to be a sunk cost. Furthermore, if credits are offered, college kids will be able to take a variety of courses in fields that they may want to try out and the more institutions that allow credits from MOOCs, the more students will feel comfortable taking these courses. It will be a great outlet for students to use in a variety of ways. The SJSU example is extremely poor as the sample is way too limited and as mentioned in the article, the bulk of students who signed up for courses were in limited situations.

varelse 13y ago
If I had to pay $150/course, that would end my usage of MOOCs. In contrast, I'd be happy to pay $5-$10/month for overall access to Coursera or Udacity (probably just Coursera actually given the quality issues I've seen on Udacity). But the minute you try to shoehorn me back into the traditional mode of learning, I'm going back to reading books at my own pace and timing. Can we pretty please finally have the 21st century that should have started sometime during the last decade?
- aashaykumar92 13y ago
  That doesn't solve the problem of completing a course, though.
  - varelse 13y ago
    The problem IMO is believing that not completing the course is in any way actually a problem. Ala carte learning for fun and profit works for me. I'm saying what it's worth to me as well. Maybe such beliefs should be studied across the customers of Coursera and Udacity to refine their business model? Bonus points for figuring out that I download and save a lot of lecture material for later viewing because some professors force their content to expire and go away. This stuff is gold for passing the time on transcontinental flights. Negative points for the absolutely godawful official Coursera mobile app in an age when Coursistant is both free and 100x better. Why did they even bother with such an obvious Acqui-hire in plain sight? Finally, if people pay $X for a fancy certificate and then don't complete the course, sometimes it really should be considered their problem, not yours. You can't save a world stuck in a infinite loop of its own making. What's the old joke? How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the light bulb has to want to change.

varelse 13y ago

If I had to pay $150/course, that would end my usage of MOOCs. In contrast, I'd be happy to pay $5-$10/month for overall access to Coursera or Udacity (probably just Coursera actually given the quality issues I've seen on Udacity). But the minute you try to shoehorn me back into the traditional mode of learning, I'm going back to reading books at my own pace and timing. Can we pretty please finally have the 21st century that should have started sometime during the last decade?

aashaykumar92 13y ago
That doesn't solve the problem of completing a course, though.
- varelse 13y ago
  The problem IMO is believing that not completing the course is in any way actually a problem. Ala carte learning for fun and profit works for me. I'm saying what it's worth to me as well. Maybe such beliefs should be studied across the customers of Coursera and Udacity to refine their business model? Bonus points for figuring out that I download and save a lot of lecture material for later viewing because some professors force their content to expire and go away. This stuff is gold for passing the time on transcontinental flights. Negative points for the absolutely godawful official Coursera mobile app in an age when Coursistant is both free and 100x better. Why did they even bother with such an obvious Acqui-hire in plain sight? Finally, if people pay $X for a fancy certificate and then don't complete the course, sometimes it really should be considered their problem, not yours. You can't save a world stuck in a infinite loop of its own making. What's the old joke? How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the light bulb has to want to change.