This kind of fits into my own idea of where MOOCs might fit in HE
“Academic Partnerships has collaborated with public universities to offer credit-bearing MOOCs as a first step and a free start toward earning a degree. Through this new initiative, the initial course in select online degree programs will be converted into a MOOC. Each MOOC will be the same course with the same academic content, taught by the same instructors, as currently offered degree programs at participating universities. Students who successfully complete a MOOC2Degree course earn academic credits toward a degree, based upon criteria established by participating universities.”
To paraphrase – Try before you buy, get your first unit free. Do our MOOC and then, if you enroll in our degree course, you will get a credit.
This is being done in partnership with a commercial provider but the resources could be developed incrementally in-house as part of the conventional fee based on campus unit, then re-purposed for the MOOC.
As a marketing and recruitment strategy in tight market it makes sense. I’m not sure what the rules are in the U.S., but there would have to be some rigour around the assessment, and some manual marking if we were giving credit. Which means ongoing overhead and cost. You’d have to do some thinking about your break even point, and I suspect you may have to apply some kind of cap (at which point it is no longer a MOOC but a LOOC? – Limited Open Online Course*)
I think the logical first step is to not worry about giving credit.
I’d suggest we offer optional, prerequisite mini MOOCs for specific first year units. The target would be units that have a mix of entry level skills e.g. a health related unit that doesn’t necessarily require a pass in VCE biology, or an accounting unit that includes students who didn’t do VCE Accounting. Teaching these units can be a challenge for academics trying to forge a path between student boredom and bewilderment.
These would be of interest and use to the general public, but would be structured to ensure that students without the related VCE subject would at least have a working knowledge at the commencement of the course. They could also serve as cost effective remedial resources.
They would still double up as marketing and recruitment tools by providing ‘tasters’ for prospective students. Of course the marketing aspect only works if you produce top quality resources, which means bringing in some designers and developers, which in turn means some reasonably significant one-off expenses.
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*When does your MOOC stop being a MOOC? And what does it become?
– MFOOC – Massive Fee based but still Open to all Online Course?
– RSMFOOC – if access is also Regionally Specific
– LSOC – Limited numbers Select entry OC?
– LSFOC – Limited Select entry Fee based OC?
– RSLFOC – Regional Specific Limited Select entry Fee based OC?
Have I missed anything?