College credit recommended for free online courses

[enlightenment]

30. You aren't grasping what I'm saying.

There are plenty of online courses available and many offer full video and even live interactive content with the instructor. They are facilitated, planned courses that provide an environment where a self-motivated student can "drive" their own education and learning process - and prove that they have acquired the knowledge and/or skills required to be considered competent.

MOOCs are "online" only in their platform. Then are not - at this point - viable alternatives for credit-based assessment. One day they will be; but they aren't now.

If you want to enroll in a MOOC for personal enrichment, then go for it. I have. Some are very interesting. The "chat" discussions are worthless - far too many people, frankly - and the assessments (not always offered) and projects are the equivalent of studying flash cards. No real assessment of material studied or skills learned. But the lectures are often very good.

I am astonished that people (in general, not you specifically) complain about large class sizes at university and then embrace the idea of taking an online course with ten or twenty or forty thousand other students. I suppose if one believes that taking a class is sufficient, that no assessment is needed and completion proves competency, then the current format of most MOOCs is indeed the future.

I'm not sure that I would want to (for example) take my taxes to an accountant who earned their degree in that fashion, but everyone's mileage differs.

In my opinion - and the opinion of many others - MOOCs just aren't ready to become credit-based assessment tools.

http://digital.hechingerreport.org/content/my-first-mooc-crashed_371/
http://digital.hechingerreport.org/content/addendum-to-mooc-crash_388/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+hechingerreport%2FphyU+%28Digital%29

That isn't saying they can't be. This blog post by someone who designs online courses, offers some very good ideas about what MOOCs need to do to improve.
http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/
The one thing it does not address is the unlimited size of the courses. An instructor may not be "leading" a MOOC, but the courses still require human interaction. Can one or two or even a dozen people adequately facilitate a class of 40,000?