www.staradvertiser.com/…online_classes_for_credit.html
From the NY Times reposted at Honolulu Advertiser…despite name the big Hawaii paper.
This sounds a lot like the program coming out of Carnegie Mellon and working with NMSU and a number of other land grant universities. In fact, it may well be the same program which originally was focusing on “supporting” the big intro 101 courses but looked an awful lot like really just doing online courses to me…
This is the one Kris and I participated in presentation at NMSU Teaching Academy program, back when Couture was NMSU president.
Maybe it’s a shame, as universities in many ways are a good part of a community, and make up a fair share of the “culture” that is available outside of the big US cities. But this process reminds me of sand castles on the beach that find themselves too close to the shore when the tide comes in… melting and dissolving with each new wave that laps at their foundations.
Not that impressed by this “business model” either.
“”””In an unusual arrangement with a commercial company, dozens of public universities plan to offer an introductory online course free and for credit to anyone worldwide, in the hope that those who pass will pay tuition to complete a degree program.””””