Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/139946
MOOCs Get Credit ation rates for students paying US$200,000 for their educations is important. But measuring completion rates when they can sign up for free? That's an irrelevant number. We shouldn't take a measure from the old industry and apply it to the new. [Of 87,000 students who initially enrolled in Terwiesch's first class, 7,000 users were active in the discussion forums and took the final exam.] What impact will MOOCs have on higher education? Hess: I expect we'll see more partnerships between four-year institutions and community colleges to bring more content to community colleges in a cost-efficient manner. One also could argue that the sector most disrupted by MOOCs will be for-profit education, which will be up against completely different competitors. Many business schools already use online learning combined with residencies in their executive MBA programs, so MOOCs most likely will drive improvements for those programs. Lucas: Obviously, we can't keep giving away our product, and Coursera is working on a revenue model. For instance, Coursera now offers certificates, where students can pay a fee to show they've completed the course, as well as a model in which it licenses a MOOC to a school for use in a course and pays a royalty to the university that created it. I also think we'll find ways for MOOCs to add value to the traditional classroom. So, say, five Nobel Prize-winning professors create MOOCs in economics. If a professor selects the parts of those MOOCs that are the most exciting, and The American Council on Education (ACE), an association that advises college presidents, has endorsed five massive online open courses for undergraduate credit. They include courses in genetics and bioelectricity from Duke University, in pre-calculus and algebra from the University of California at Irvine, and in calculus from the University of Pennsylvania. All are offered through Coursera. Even with ACE's endorsement, degree-granting institutions still decide whether to accept these courses for credit. Schools that have made that leap include Georgia State University, which will grant credits for certain MOOCs if students demonstrate mastery of the material—much as it would for students who have passed Advanced Placement tests. In April, the University of Cincinnati in Ohio announced that its students could earn two credits for completing a seven-week MOOC, "Innovation and Design Thinking." Students can apply those credits toward their graduate degrees in either the Carl H. Lindner College of Business or the College of Engineering and Applied Science. In the face of growing tuition, decreased state funding, and increased enrollments, some California schools are turning to MOOCs to help students reduce the cost of tuition. San Jose State University has partnered with MOOC provider Udacity in a pilot project that will allow students to earn credits for completing introductory MOOCs in subjects such as mathematics. Created by school faculty, these MOOCs will cost US$150, compared to $450 to $750 for an on-campus course. The University of California and California State University systems are working with MOOC providers to establish similar programs. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on a bill under consideration by the California state legislature. The bill calls for state universities to allow students to take certain online courses delivered by external providers if the students are unable to enroll in the introductory courses offered at their own schools because of high demand. If the bill is passed, California colleges and universities could be required to accept certain MOOCs for credit. That possibility could add a new dimension to the debate over whether MOOCs are good news or bad news for higher education. brings those parts into class for discussion, that adds value. It would be rare that a professor could bring five Nobel-winning professors to class any other way. Terwiesch: I think we'll develop a model where students can take the course for free but pay for extra support, extra lectures, and testtaking monitoring if they're taking the course for credit. In places such as Africa and Asia, this model can reach thousands and thousands of students who otherwise would not be able to attend school. In the 1990s, I once had a conversation with Jeff Bezos of Amazon. com, and we wondered whether bookstores would die out one day. A couple of years later, we knew that was exactly what was happening, but no one was willing to admit it because it sounded too evil. As business professors, we see innovation happen in industries all the time. This time it's happening in our own. I think we know exactly where this is heading, but we don't want to say it right now. This is a disruptive technology, and some people are going to lose. But when the automobile came around, we didn't cry for the horse cart. If professors continue to reinvent what they teach and stay experiential, there will always be work. It would be incredibly naive to believe that we can continue to do business as usual, as if MOOCs hadn't come along. This is not a crazy trend that will stick around for a year and then go away. It's here to stay. BizEd July/August 2013 29