<p>MOOCs are new and cool, but distance education in the form of “correspondence courses” has been around for centuries. The author went on to get a PhD and become head of the American Enterprise Institute. A benefit of separating college-level study from the “college experience” is that it filters out people who are only interested in the latter.</p>
<p>Beliavsky…just gotta ask. Do you search out these articles? Are you a parent or college student? The articles are “interesting”'in a limited sense. </p>
<p>What exactly is your opinion of traditional four year colleges…which come in all sizes, shapes, and colors?</p>
<p>There’s no question the author took a smart path that served him extremely well. There’s also no question that he was unusual, even singular. Few students of any age have the self-discipline and baseline skills to finish a remote degree with no support. It’s not at all clear that making his path more widely available would produce more than a handful of success stories like him.</p>
<p>Virtually everyone I have met who has a partial college degree has tried to complete using some variation of online/correspondence courses. It is a tough path- I applaud the people who can do this- but the coursework gets progressively tougher the further along you go (duh!) and so the lack of face to face contact with professors, the support of a study group/peer group, etc. becomes more critical the closer to completion you get.</p>
<p>Our news did a piece on MOOCs last night - seems their graduation rate is 10%. Of those 10% who make it, I wonder how many end up using their degrees…</p>
<p>It’s certainly NOT a path I wish had been available when I was of college age and not one I’m encouraging for my own offspring, but if it works for some, more power to them!</p>
<p>I wonder where the 10% graduation rate number came from. Which providers of MOOCs confer bachelor’s degrees? I may encourage my kids to use MOOCs for courses that are best suited for them (perhaps introductory math, science, and programming courses) and use college for other courses.</p>
<p>One of my closest friends got her master’s by mail while her husband was in the Armed Forces, from some now defunct school, but it was valid and accredited at that time. Everyone told her it was a waste of time. She has a dream job at a major university now, and that job required a master’s which she was able to whip out and show them she had. No one cares where it was from or what it was in,</p>
<p>Those details weren’t mentioned - or if they were, I didn’t pay attention. I watch an NBC affiliate, so perhaps they have the same story on their webpage - or perhaps google, itself, can be helpful. They were interviewing a prof from UVA for part of it. Thus, I would expect UVA to be one of them (at least partially). The umbrella company’s name started with a Co - don’t remember the rest. It wasn’t something that piqued my interest, so my attention to the story was nominal at best.</p>
<p>I’ve found this to be very true with higher degrees (Masters, etc), esp when one has work experience that is far more relevant to the job. Many who are already on the job, but just need higher degrees to check a box also are success stories for Phoenix and other places.</p>
<p>The fields I’m familiar with don’t feel the same way about undergrad degrees. They want b&m for those at this point. I don’t foresee that changing either. The higher degree is more of a continuing education thing. The undergrad has the nuts and bolts needed.</p>
<p>The name of the company is Coursera. They currently offer 216 courses from some top notch US universities including (alphabetical order):</p>
<p>Berklee College of Music
Brown
Cal Tech
Columbia
Duke
Emory
GA Tech
Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai
Johns Hopkins
OH State
Princeton
Rice
Stanford
UC Irvine
UC SF
U of FL
U of IL Urbana-Champaign
U of MD
U of MI
U of PA
U of Pittsburgh
U of VA
U of WA
Vanderbilt
Wesleyan</p>
<p>Every job I got was through knowing someone. I did not go to prestigious schools, but I worked hard to impress professors at the school I went to. My professors were the one that recommended me for the jobs I had. My husband now works for the company founded by the guy I went to grad school with. I put them in touch. To me going to college includes making connections, which is impossible to do at online schools.</p>
<p>Maybe their stat just means only 10% who take these classes get a degree through the program. I know many who take these types of classes, but none who go for that degree.</p>
<p>^^^ they may “get it.” Just not be able to afford it. </p>
<p>Plus, most people taking online classes are working adults either re-educating themselves, or getting the master’s degree which will enable them to advance. They may have had the ‘traditional’ college experience earlier.</p>
<p>But I do agree strongly that one of the big benefits of the traditional college experience is making contacts. My first ‘real’ job out of college was through college connections, and was crucial in setting me up on a life-long career path.</p>