<p>As a Wesleyan parent, I think it’s great that Wesleyan is taking a leading role in Coursera, as the first liberal arts college included in the ranks of top schools to offer MOOCs through this platform.</p>
<p>Kudos to President Roth for having the foresight to get in on the ground floor with what may end up being an amazing showcase for all that Wesleyan has to offer. I believe this MOOC partnership with Coursera will be a boon for Wesleyan in a number of ways, from increased visibility and name-recognition to improving admission numbers and admit rates to enhanced prestige, alumna donation and fundraising numbers, etc.</p>
<p>I’m taking a Coursera MOOC at the moment, “Introduction to Mathematical Thinking,” produced at Stanford. It’s actually a wonderful course, very well conceived and executed. The amazing thing is that, in only its second iteration, the course really does work rather well. I’m learning, and having a blast doing so. </p>
<p>I imagine in just a few short years we’ll see many of the kinks smoothed out of these early attempts at MOOCs, and what will emerge will be a MOOC-space that’s even more polished, useful, and successful as an educational alternative.</p>
<p>Amherst’s decision not to participate in EdX is interesting, and was made by its faculty. I wonder what the Wesleyan faculty would have had to say, before returning to school to find the deal had already been done?</p>
<p>In any case, I think schools like Wesleyan and Wellesley have made the right decision, and that Amherst will regret theirs.</p>
<p>MOOCs are here to stay, for better or worse (I think it’ll be mostly for the better). You won’t get rid of the internet, and MOOCs are a natural extension of it.</p>
<p>Ironically, it was the college with the higher endowment per student that was the more risk averse. My understanding is that Wesleyan presidents have their own discretionary fund for curricular innovation. Nevertheless, it’s hard to imagine a Wesleyan chief executive presenting a similar proposal without first lining up the support they needed for it to pass. Buddy Martin either didn’t do her homework or she was just kicking the can further down the road for the time being.</p>
<p>Quote:
“After rejecting for-profit companies, including 2U, Amherst decided to explore a deal with edX.”</p>
<p>It’s sort of hard to believe that it took 9 faculty members to figure out MOOCs “enrolled tens of thousands of students” or that no professor could possibly grade that many tests by hand. No one doubts the implications for liberal arts colleges or that the devil would be in the details. It’s a question of engagement versus whistling past the graveyard.
Read more: [Despite</a> courtship Amherst decides to shy away from star MOOC provider | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“Despite courtship Amherst decides to shy away from star MOOC provider”>Despite courtship Amherst decides to shy away from star MOOC provider)
Inside Higher Ed</p>
<p>My respect only increases for Wesleyan upon finding that they are participating in Coursera. I have taken a few MOOCs through coursera, including Fantasy literature from the University of Michgan, and am currently enrolled in 'Intro to Guitar" from the Berkelee School of Music. The opportunities are amazing and worth every second one puts into them. I cannot of course speak to the benefits and costs for either the participating institutions, or the organizing entities, but as an older student from a somewhat rural location, I now have access to many courses I would never otherwise have and am absolutely expanding my personal and educational horizons. I love the program unreservedly as a student.</p>
<p>The peer evaluation process does leave something to be desired, and there are certainly ways to continually improve the entire approach to online education, but the goals of MOOCs are commendable. I do not see MOOCs as actually replacing traditional and/or residential college/university education, though, and I think they may generally appeal to a wider and different market demographic?</p>
<p>Very interesting article by Wesleyan president Michael Roth about his experience at the dawn of the MOOC age:</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>A student in South India says that decades after having completed formal schooling, “learning makes me feel alive.” And a student who doesn’t say where she’s from simply writes: “Baudelaire has captured me. I love the living and the feeling and the participating in life’s beauty and ugliness. I have taken to carrying Paris Spleen around town with me as I walk and bike.”</p>
<p>Large problems and rough edges not withstanding, one gets the feeling reading what Roth has written that MOOCs are doing as much for professors (and universities) as they are for students.</p>
<p>In yet another NYT shout (I think next to Barnard, Wesleyan must be the New York Times’ favorite LAC), Wesleyan’s experiment with MOOCs gets some love:
<p>Perhaps. Do you feel the same way about AP credit for work D may have done in h/s? What if an online course made the difference between fulfilling a prerequisite and going abroad for a semester? More to the point, what if taking a MOOC (in combination with a couple of AP credits) meant saving 47k by graduating a year early?</p>
<p>Of course, that isn’t Wesleyan’s policy now or probably in the near future. But, for some middle-class families, the judicious use of MOOCs could spell the difference between being able to attend an elite college or university - and not being able to afford to.</p>
<p>lynch112: As circuitrider said, online courses are NOT part of Wesleyan’s curriculum for its degree-seeking students, just as with other elite schools offering online courses. They are simply an extra way to bring a taste of the school’s offerings to the masses. You needn’t worry.</p>