MOOCS provide great alternative to what is considered higher education. College students in the modern world often deal with the weight of textbook prices, increasing tuition, and large sums of money being paid to services that are uncertain to most students. The internet, as a revolutionary innovation in the 21st century has lead to the networking of individuals, scholars, cultures, societies, and those that wish to benefit knowledge among the human species. That being said, a free online data course that provides materials otherwise given in the class can be seen as a proactive step in furthering knowledge across the globe, even to those that do not have the fiscal means of attaining higher education. If we look at the Berlin based iversity, we see hundreds of thousands of students signing up for the initial 6 courses out of the ultimate 24 courses that the online curriculum will provide, going through 2014 (Lomas 2013). Replacing college may seem like a stretch, as universities pull in as much business as some tourist attractions do during holiday season. However, universities across the globe in China, Mexico, Singapore, and Canada have all partnered with MOOCs to provide services to their students. Former president of Princeton, William G. Bowen says that “there’s great promise here, great potential, but we need more careful research, and there has not been sufficient attention to that, partly because a lot of these people creating these courses are missionaries, and missionaries are not by and large interesting in testing their message (Lewin 2013).” If this is so, we could see a long, thorough process of these courses making their way into the mainstream system; something that would prolong the desire to receive free online education for those without the means of any other way.
Lomas, N. (2013, October 15). Europe’s iversity launches 1st moocs with 100k students & curriculum of 24 courses. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/14/iversity-initial-students/
Lewin, T. (2013, February 20). Universities abroad join partnership on the web. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/education/universities-abroad-join-mooc-course-projects.html?_r=0
Jentleson, B. (2013, October 15). Mooc-ing about in high tech ed and high end global dialogue. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-w-jentleson/moocing-about-in-high-tec_b_4080035.html
johnscelzo 