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MIT Master's Program To Use MOOCs As 'Admissions Test' (chronicle.com)
jyosim writes: In what could usher a new way of doing college admissions at elite colleges, MIT is experimenting with weighing MOOC performance as proof that students should be accepted to on-campus programs. The idea is to fix the "inexact science" of sorting through candidates from all over the world. And it gives students a better sense of what they're getting into: "When you buy a car, you take a test drive. Wouldn't it be a great value for prospective students to take a test course before they apply?" said one academic blogger.
Yeah, that kid that was smart enough to take an alarm clock out of it's case and put it into another is getting free ride from MIT. Not only was he smart enough to use a screwdriver, he was smart/lucky enough not to electrocute himself in the process!
Clearly not as many people know what MOOC means, hence the debate right here in the comments and the +5 given to the post pointing out what it means.
This is actual evidence showing that no, it is not well known on this site despite what you believe should be the case.
Now, you can pat yourself on the back, puff out your chest, and congratulate yourself about how smart you are for knowing this term all you want; but it does not change the fact that the term is not yet particularly well known.
Speaking as a professor who evaluates hundreds of applicants for graduate school every year, yes.
MIT doesn't need more information about their applicants. They have standardized tests, undergrad coursework and GPAs, research experience, internships, etc. etc. etc.
To me, my first thought is that this is just a self-serving way of driving students to their MOOCs. MOOCs were overhyped and are underperforming, and this smacks of trying to salvage what they put into it by finding other uses for it and forcing students to do it to apply.
In general, there's a supply and demand thing with applications--if you have sufficient demand for a degree, and competition for applications, you can really ask them to do lots of stuff. They'll bend over backwards to do it too. So if you say "hey, do this MOOC to get in," you can guarantee lots of people will do it for that reason and nothing else. And suddenly that MOOC starts to seem more valuable on paper.
Unless MIT runs its masters programs like they run their MOOCs, or incompetent at evaluating applicants, they don't need this extra bit of information. They already have all they need. This is just corruption, frankly, having a conflict of interest in being the institution admitting students, and also the institution supplying the information needed for admission.
My advice: run like hell from this program. They're publicly demonstrating their lack of ethical standards. It's no surprise this for a program in "supply-chain management."