Changing Higher Education

Why MOOCs threaten academic freedom - too much value for the students

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the use of MOOCs contains the following fascinating interview:

Chandrakant Panse, a professor of microbiology at MassBay (Community College) and president of the union chapter there, does not think MOOCs will make local faculty members obsolete. But Mr. Panse does think an edX certificate, acknowledging the completion of an MIT course, is worth more to students than three credits at a community college. And that could pose a threat to academic freedom in the future.

"The MIT certificate has a lot more value in the marketplace than three course credits at MassBay—absolutely," Mr. Panse says. In the context of a student's job search, says the professor, an edX certificate "is going to matter tremendously more than saying I have three credits at MassBay for doing a programming course."

Considering the possibility that edX courses will become part of the curriculum at MassBay, Mr. Panse believes that students will want the opportunity to earn edX certificates in addition to credit toward their MassBay degrees. That demand could prompt administrators to require that MassBay professors hew closely to the curriculum prescribed by the MIT professors.

American Public Education and Fidelis link up

American Public Education, parent of the American Public University System, announced today that it was making a $4M investment in Fidelis Education as part of a new round of funding for Fidelis.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I have been on the advisory board for Fidelis for almost 2 years.  

Gunnar Counselman started Fidelis in 2011 to address the mismatch between the educational services offered in the typical college or university and the needs of service members leaving the military and seeking tertiary education leading to a civilian career. Over time, he recognized that what was needed was a "wrap around service" that helped to coordinate all of the elements of the university in a way that responded to the needs of the student, and he knew that he had to build a scalable approach. His resulting web based tools turned out to be so useful that his university partners asked that he make them available to their general student bodies.  

This new funding round enables Fidelis to focus on technology developments that will make these tools more useful to a broader audience. It will be interesting to see how it developes.