The Economist on the economics of universities and MOOCs

<p>The Economist has a column on the economics of universities and MOOCs.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21595901-rise-online-instruction-will-upend-economics-higher-education-massive"&gt;http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21595901-rise-online-instruction-will-upend-economics-higher-education-massive&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>The column makes analogies of MOOCs to textbooks in an economic sense. It also suggests that the market for instructors may move toward fewer highly compensated superstar instructors. There is also mention that MOOC completers do better than students in face-to-face instruction -- though not mentioned is the likely selection effect (MOOC courses have a high percentage of non-completers, and completion likely selects for the most highly motivated students).</p>

<p>At the end of the column is a discussion mentioning that less selective universities are more easily substituted by MOOCs, while elite ones are selling something in addition to education.</p>

<p>I always think this kind of online-education hype is historically blind. How are MOOCs different from the kind of distance learning programs we’ve had for a century?</p>

<p>There is a futurist coming to our city to talk about the future of higher education. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.davidpearcesnyder.com/from_higher_ed.htm”>http://www.davidpearcesnyder.com/from_higher_ed.htm&lt;/a&gt; (long version).
<a href=“http://www.the-futurist.com/future_watch.htm”>http://www.the-futurist.com/future_watch.htm&lt;/a&gt; (shorter version).</p>

<p>I think MOOCs and other rapidly developing educational tools (e.g. Khan Academy), programs (e.g. FIRST robotics) and organizations (e.g. IB) will make skills global and skill certification global. So, one’s Ivy credentialed child is competing against members of the entire planet who have digital access hunger to learn. The game will be bigger and intensified by social media tools. Or, at least the part of higher education for skills aggregation and networking is undergoing a paradigm shift with more players, new players, and new tools. I would love to hear from others who are helping universities strategize as a business.</p>

<p>MOOC’s are free, right? If so, what do you get–a nice but worthless cerfiicate, or actual credit? I can’t see a school granting actual credit for free. </p>

<p>The lack of credit or credential may be fine if you are taking the course for personal interest, or to acquire a skill which you can demonstrate and use but a credential is not used as a barrier to entry to work in the area.</p>

<p>Credit or credentialing for a MOOC class would require additional services like somehow having exams, projects, etc. with some sort of barrier against cheating; obviously, this would be extra cost.</p>

<p>Nowadays, students who complete some MOOCs transform the learning into credits by CLEPping. How useful that is really depends on where the student is seeking a degree. </p>

<p>MOOC’s are similar to having a good textbook.</p>