MOOC Madness

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

 

11/20/12

 

When the New York Times is good, it is really good, and it has been all over the online higher ed story like white on rice. Today it has yet another illuminating piece on how massive open online courses (MOOCs) are transforming higher-ed.

 

Professors face a host of challenges in adapting to the new platform: devising teaching methods appropriate for a more impersonal setting; assessing how well students are learning; and structuring courses to engage so many students of varying ages and backgrounds. Perhaps most importantly, professors need to build a grading system that can process thousands of assignments and tests from that very diverse student body. It’s a process of trial and error:

 

(Snip)

 

By now, most of the academic establishment has come to terms with the fact that online courses are the way of the future. It’s now up to the innovators to work out the kinks and over time — perhaps over much less time than many complacent academics expect — the face of American higher education will change more radically than at any time since the aftermath of World War Two.