Should “real” students do an online course on the side?

By Kalia Ross, The Guardian, 19 February 2013

Universities have started giving away their content free as "Massive Open Online Courses", with the satisfyingly ridiculous acronym MOOCs. Eleven top UK universities recently announced they were joining the Open University to launch FutureLearn, in an attempt to catch up with the elite US institutions that have led the way in teaching huge numbers online.

It all sounds great for people who, for one reason or another, can't go to a traditional university. But do MOOCs have anything to offer students already studying at a conventional institution? Well, I've signed up for a MOOC in microeconomics. I did it because I'm thinking about whether to do a master’s degree and what to study. I'm testing my resolve: if I enjoy it enough to study in my own time, maybe I'm ready for a master’s. Better to find out before I hand over the money. Why else would a university student consider a MOOC? You could use it to improve your CV – it shows you're motivated, you have a variety of interests and you're not struggling with your workload.

And before you can use an online course to help you get a job, employers have to learn what they are and respect them. University isn't just about what you learn but proving you know it. The only proof you did your MOOC is that you clicked on "I promise not to cheat[i]". This is changing, though: one of the biggest MOOC organisers, Coursera, is testing facial recognition software to monitor students, and charging a small fee for verification.

Moocs are extra tuition from a different perspective. Dreading[ii] that compulsory class you know you'll find difficult to pass, the one with the 50% fail rate? MOOC comes to the rescue. Free preparation: better than failing and suffering the consequences to your grade point average and student loan.

Are MOOCs a threat to old school universities? Should we fear that, before we've even paid them off, traditional university degrees will become obsolete like floppy disks [iii]? Probably not, as they are a long way from ready to replace traditional degrees. There might not be a MOOC versus traditional university mega-battle – instead, online courses offer another option on higher education's menu of delights.

MOOCs still have serious problems. A Coursera course crashed[iv] recently, unable to cope with the thousands of students trying to join online discussions. MOOCs are limited to subjects that can be assessed with multiple choice exams, marked automatically. Written any essays in your degree? Your professor's critique of them can't be replicated by a MOOC – yet. As for me, although I did not make a single friend in a community of 37,000, I enjoyed the chance to learn what I was interested in, on my own terms. MOOCs are a new approach to education – and we, traditional university students, needn't miss out[v]. 

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GLOSSARY:

[i] cheat= act dishonestly in an exam

[ii] dread= be afraid of

[iii] floppy disk= diskette

[iv] crashed= stopped functioning

[v] miss out= miss the opportunity to benefit from something