Most MOOC students already have college degrees, in a sample analyzed
by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.
Let's hope the visionary promise of MOOCs—universal online college
access for the uneducated—gets a better report card in future.
UofP offers Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through Coursera, one
of the high-profile providers of these worldwide, open-access, completely
online courses.
In a study of 34,779 students in 24 UofP MOOC courses, more than 80%
had an associate's or bachelor's degree, and 44% had at least some graduate
education.
In countries such China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, where
MOOCs are popular, “80 percent of MOOC students come from the wealthiest and
most well educated 6 percent of the population”
This limited study suggests that MOOCs generally are not reaching poor,
uneducated folks in geographic areas and social strata where opportunities for
college-level education are limited.
The UofP researchers take pains to mention that these findings
represent students of the two dozen courses examined in the study, and may not
represent the millions of MOOC students worldwide. The survey was conducted
among students who registered for a MOOC, and watched at least one video
lecture in the course.
More education is better, no matter who is getting it. Let's hope the
visionary promise of MOOCs—universal college access—gets a better report card
in future.
….and here's another point of view: Are MOOCs "middlebrow" ?
No comments:
Post a Comment