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The End of College? Not So Fast
An anonymous reader writes: The advent of MOOCs, Khan Academy, and the hundreds of other learning sites that have popped up caused many people to predict the decline of expensive, four-year universities. But Donald Heller writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education that most of the people making these claims don't have a good understanding of how actual students are interacting with online classes. He points out that it's a lot easier for a 40-year-old who's in a stable life position, and who has already experienced college-level education to work through an MOOC with ease. But things change when you're asking 18- to 20-year-olds to give up the structure and built-in motivation of a physical university to instead sit at their computer for hours at a time. (The extremely low pass rate for free online courses provides some evidence for this.) Heller also warns that prematurely hailing MOOCs as a replacement for colleges will only encourage governments and organizations to stop investing in institutions of higher learning, which could have dire consequences for education worldwide.
There are people who want to learn and not go to a 50K-100K party to get a piece of paper.
(The extremely low pass rate for free online courses provides some evidence for this.)
The extremely low pass rate doesn't mean a shit. This guy is an idiot. The motivation to pass a course that doesn't cost you anything and is most of the time not required and even recognized is not the same as passing a grade. Many people are just sneaking around at MOOC, and it is perfectly acceptable. They start some course just to see. There is not requirements, verification you are having the prerequisite before enrolling into a course. You just cannot compare MOOC and traditional education on this basis. That is plain stupid and full of bullshit to do so.
Many people are dropping a course in the middle because they have other obligations and there is no consequences to do so. Some others are overbooking courses and then drop those they are less interested in, etc. This behavior is responsible for the low pass rate. And the low pass rate doesn't mean anything in the context of MOOC. Beside that, some MOOC courses are just badly designed. Some teachers are just taking the material they have for the on-campus course and put that on the MOOC and expect miracles without further involvement. They forget the on-campus course give students access to other resources which are key to success. Since they do not provide the same kind of support for the MOOC, no wonder many people are dropping before the end or end up investing more time than they should to complete the course. Those who haven't planned for such level of investment are just dropping or failing the course.
Achille Talon
Hop!