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One of nations best University systems, University of California, is about to start its first group of fully online courses for undergraduates. At the same time, the California State Universities (CSU) starting its computer-based options for its 412,000 students. Currently, there are master's degrees in 63 disciplines entirely online. Some educators are skeptical and raise concern on cheating and of "walmartaization" of CSU education.

Online courses and the humanities

The issue

HGSET561

This is a really interesting article, and coupled with the edX / Anant Agarwal article below from Douglas, I think it brings up additional questions. Even with all the features that Anant says will be added to edX, I feel like they are all just part of the "convenience" factor and in many cases (like grading, discussion forum), more convenience for the teaching staff than the students. It is convenient for the students to do online labwork instead of going to a physical lab, for example. So I wonder if that type of convenience is enough to convince more students to sign up to MOOCs, or if they have to fundamentally change to add more types of value?

Online schools benefit who? children or taxpayers, or a company that thrives by squeezing profits from public schools by raising enrollment , increasing teacher load, and lowering standards?

An online university offer free online education to students in more than 120 countries. The university recruits volunteers from Brigham Young, Columbia, Harvard, Insead, N.Y.U. and Yale. "We're not trying to create Oxford or Harvard...This is low-cost, high-quality education for people who can't afford anything else."

more free online courses from MIT. purchasable certificate for satisfactory completion. grading by fellow students, or computers? will this allow creative, open-ended work to be done for grading?

the access to online courses is great for those seeking affordable education options. My guess, however, is that design of these courses is going to vary -- the design needs to be held up to high standards for course content to be usable.

In the US, 250000 students are enrolled in full-time public virtual schools in 30 states, according to Susan Patrick of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a trade association. Although that's just a fraction of the country's 50 million students, it has grown 30% each year. Some schools in Michigan already shown the advantage of digital learning.

This is an interesting article. I am just concerned that it is not unbiased or driven by an agenda other than improving education. I found this information about the Mackinac Center online: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/mackinac-center-public-policy I am starting to realize that a lot of the technology in schools rhetoric is driven by corporate and political interests, and as the industry becomes ever more profitable, I'm worried that companies are going to jump in and try to influence policy, rushing through the movement toward the wrong kind of technology in schools- i.e. sacking half of the teaching staff and replacing them with cheap computers. I think one of our most important jobs as Harvard TIE students is to education the public about the right ways to adapt technology in the classroom, and the important role that teachers will continue to play in this movement.

Online courses are not students only, they are for teachers too. Tennessee offers free Online courses to help educators maximize their knowledge of balanced assessment systems, including formative instructional practices, value-added progress measures and effective strategies to improve teaching and learning. Since Fall 2010, more than 270,000 courses have been completed throughout Tennessee by 42,000 educators.

Check out nb a very cool, collaborative note taking tool developed by MIT's Haystack Group. Last night I got into a discussion with Sanjoy Mahajan, an Olin College professor who got his Phd at MIT.  We were talking about Eriz Mazur's Peer Instruction technique when he began describing how in his flipped-classroom courses he uses the MIT Haystack Group's "nb" software to enable his student's to collaboratively discuss the course readings (online in pdf form) through shared, online annotations & notes.   Sanjoy's students are required to participate in the online annotation discussion, making their own annotations and responding to others, the night before his class.  He then reviews the annotations to prepare the next day's discussion and peer-instruction lesson plan.

"Although Coursera's founders have presented their MOOCs as a way to democratize higher education by making it available online, free, to anyone in the world, the Penn survey found that in the United States and developing countries alike, most Coursera students were well educated, employed, young and male."

FYI, I went to Penn last year and was aware of this type of survey. Apparently, if you have a chance to look into their methodology, then they probably select a far larger number of Penn alumni than a representative portion. Considering that many Penn alumni love the idea of taking classes for free at their Alma Mater, I feel a bit skeptical about that reported unusually high percentage of bachelor's degree holders.

I think that this makes a lot of sense. You have to be very self-motivated with a desire to learn AND have the online resources and time to take a MOOC. That's a lot - and I would guess that people who are highly educated tend to be self-motivated. And then young men probably have more time than working parents. There's a lot of constraining factors despite the 'openness' of a MOOC.

Children of non-English speaking parents help them find information online. The article touches on why Google hasn't been able to overcome this problem.

I've observed immigrant parents, who speak little or no English, turn to kids for weather information online.

A NPO called Common Sense Media is working with HGSE. They have launched a new web-based interactive tool for 3-5h grade to encourage responsible online behavior

2U debuts their "Semester Online." 12 university partners now allow credit to transfer between the schools allowing for customization of content.

Good read to get a pulse on an online course at Coursera. Students registered online 11,800; students registered in in-person class 20. Only three weeks into the course and student feedback has been very positive.

A group of 10 highly selective colleges has formed a consortium to offer online courses that students enrolled at any of the campuses can take for credit. The group, which includes Wake Forest and Brandeis Universities, will offer semester-long online courses using software from 2U, an education-technology company formerly called 2tor.

One of the big problems for MOOCs and other online platforms has been cheating. These five technologies can be implemented to counter online cheating.