Dive Brief:
- Arizona State University announced its new Global Freshman Academy last week, offering students anywhere in the world the chance to take their freshman year in a massive open online course format — but with a catch.
- The academy, a partnership with edX, will have eight courses, all with final exams and the option to pay no more than $800 per course for credit, but the students will not be eligible for financial aid, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
- According to Inside Higher Ed, the ASU initiative may also face accreditation troubles because of the massive projected growth of its freshman student population, the evaluation methods for the course, and the potential differences in the quality of the course compared to on-campus freshman classes.
Dive Insight:
Arizona State University has offered online degrees to students for years. They have been traditional online courses, however, where the number of students isn’t significantly different from the number of students who show up to ASU classrooms for a given course. The MOOC format will reach substantially more students using technology honed by edX, a creation of Harvard and MIT. Also, students won’t have to apply. Inside Higher Ed reports that the Global Freshman Academy aligns with competency-based programs that allow students to prove prior skill mastery for current credit. The federal government doesn’t give financial aid for such programs, which is sure to restrict access to credit-bearing courses in the program.