Dive Summary:
- Rosie Redfield at The Vancouver Observer writes about the University of British Columbia's MOOC partnership with Coursera and writes about the massive open online courses' implications for off-campus learners, employers, university students and school faculty members.
- Redfield explains that MOOCs will benefit learners off-campus who don't care about credentials, while replacing some for-credit options for students enrolled at universities.
- Employers who care more about specific skills than degrees as performance predictors may be interested in MOOCs for employees, while faculty will likely find ways to supplement their in-class teaching.
From the article:
"... MOOCs offered by Coursera and by Udacity and EdX, are open to anyone, anywhere in the world. No fees are charged, there are no formal application procedures or prerequisites, and the courses yield no formal academic credit. Instead of hour-long lectures, MOOCs offer weekly sets of short, focused instructional videos, supplemented with computer and peer-graded homework, quizzes and exams. Students ask for and receive help in online discussion forums and even get together for study groups in cities around the world. ..."