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EdX Drops Plans To Connect MOOC Students With Employers

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-job-for-you dept.

First time accepted submitter cranky_chemist writes "MOOC provider edX plans to abandon a program that allowed companies to mine their massive open online courses for talent after a pilot program in which none of 868 students were hired failed. edX cited HR departments for the program's demise, stating 'Existing HR departments want to go for traditional degree programs and filter out nontraditional candidates.'"

3 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Degrees are certifiably worthless now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    That summary is extremely clumsily written. "...none of them were hired failed"? What kind of gibberish is that?

    And whats the big deal about filtering by which method a degree was obtained? Is a degree somehow better if its obtained by physically sitting in a classroom with 30+ other people? The content is the same, the students learn the same material to qualify them in a given field (which is what a degree certifies). Are they admitting that degrees are basically worthless, since something as trivial as whether or not you attended class physically to get your degree from a reputable university influences hiring decisions?

    1. Re:Degrees are certifiably worthless now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Nonsense. You can interact with others with or without a degree. Degrees are merely pieces of paper, and I've found that hiring self-taught candidates leads to much, much better results than hiring the trash that comes from college (though there are good college-educated students, but that's in spite of college, not because of it).

    2. Re:Degrees are certifiably worthless now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Peer interaction wasn't a requirement for my bachelor's degree.
      I don't think I saw it in the syllabus for any of the majors.