MOOCs: The Future of Education is Online

A recent post in our class's discussion forum and blog by Patrick Sugent really made me think a bit about how the internet is changing the face of advanced education.  Among the major players in the 'Massive Open Online Courses' or MOOC are Coursera, edX, and Udacity. 

Currently, there are 198 courses on Coursera from 33 universities including Princeton, Duke University, and my alma mater the University of Illinois and Urbana-Champaign.  These courses last between 3 weeks and 14 weeks long and cover many topics from Greek and Roman mythology to Quantum Mechanics.  edX has less courses but have premier universities such as MIT, Harvard and Berkeley.

Daphne Koller's Powerful Ted Talk

The first question on my mind was why should Universities offer such quality content for free on the internet?  Jeffrey R. Young offers an interesting podcast where he discusses with George Siemens of Athabasca University the promise of these MOOCs to universities and society.  In this podcast, Mr. Siemens shares that universities are experimenting with MOOCs as part of a research project.  Universities are trying to understand what the model of higher education and questioning whether it is the best model for learning and for the institution in the future.  Understanding how people learn is amplified when thousands of people from around the world are taking the same class.

The second question on my mind is who is taking these courses.  As it turns out, there are approximately 60% of Coursera students come from places outside of the United States.  This is interesting that people that may not be able to attend a university in the US are getting the start of an education.  The picture at the top of the post shows the power of quality education being delivered to areas that were unable to receive it before.

In the end, however, what is the value of a free online education?  Will a prospective employer look at a resume that contains only certificates of completed classes the same as a degree?  My initial thoughts on this is that they will remain different for the near future.  Hiring managers who attended traditional universities will likely look down on free education even though the education may be comparable.  Therefore, the main role of MOOCs will likely be a great branding strategy for the universities that are participating in them.

I, as a life-long learner, hope this trend of free online education continues.