Credit for MOOCs? Not so much


For all the consternation surrounding college credits offered for massive open online courses (MOOCs), there doesn’t seem to be a winding line of campus decision makers ready to adopt for-credit MOOCs.

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Very few schools feel pressure to offer MOOCs for credit.

A comprehensive survey of U.S. higher education institutions showed that 7.8 percent of colleges and universities have offered the experimental MOOCs for college credit.

The survey, released in October by Primary Research Group, said that none of the institutions that awarded credit for MOOCs were community colleges. Most schools that award MOOC credits were private institutions, according to the survey.

Responses about credit-bearing MOOCs varied from school to school, according to the research.

“The responses suggest that a minority of colleges might be looking to accept MOOC credit in the near future if some kind of reassuring mechanism could be devised to assess knowledge gained through MOOCs and if the colleges feel sufficient pressure from state governments, accreditation bodies, and even the general student public,” the Primary Research Group report said.

The American Council on Education (ACE) has deemed only five MOOCs as credit worthy.

College faculty and others skeptical of MOOCs as a viable option for colleges and universities might be encouraged to learn that 8 percent of survey respondents said they “felt pressure” to adopt credit-bearing MOOCs.

Private colleges were more likely to feel that pressure than their public counterparts.

See page 2 for more on the main barriers to credit-bearing MOOCs…

John Ebersole, president of the online Excelsior College, wrote in a blog post that assuring students learn and take quizzes and tests that can be checked for authenticity will be a hurdle for those who want MOOCs to be offered for course credit.

“While some MOOC providers do verify the identity of those taking their course, and proctor their end-of-course examinations, little attention is being given the security of the assessment instruments,” Ebersole wrote. “This could become a problem.”

“In return for paying more attention to learning outcomes, and how they are measured, MOOC providers can not only help enhance the credibility of this pioneering effort, but also gain credibility in the eyes of critics,” he continued. “It can also provide those who complete their offerings with the credit they seek.”

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