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Five Coursera MOOCs recommended for credit

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Five Coursera MOOCs were approved for credit deservedness by ACE CREDIT.

As massive open online courses (MOOCs) continue to soar in popularity, some administrators continue to assert that MOOCs lack the high quality and credit-worthiness of traditional college courses. But soon, all that may change.

The American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT) [2] on Feb. 7 announced that it is recommending credit for the initial five Coursera [3] MOOCs it has been evaluating since late last fall–meaning students enrolled in those courses could earn college credit toward a degree.

“A rigorous evaluation of these courses showed that they meet ACE’s standards for college credit recommendations,” said Molly Corbett Broad, ACE president. “This is an important first step in ACE’s work to examine the long-term potential of MOOCs and whether this innovative new approach can engage students across the country and worldwide while helping raise degree completion, increasing learning productivity and deepening college curricula.”

Of the five courses evaluated, four were approved for undergraduate credit: Pre-Calculus [4] from the University of California, Irvine [5]; Introduction to Genetics and Evolution [6] from Duke University [7]; Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach [8] from Duke University [7]; and Calculus: Single Variable [9] from the University of Pennsylvania [10]. The fifth course, Algebra [11] from the University of California, Irvine [5], was approved for vocational credit.

(Next page: How students may earn credit)

Starting Feb. 7, students who meet all the necessary requirements and wish to sign up for one of the five approved courses can do so through Coursera’s Signature Track [12], which requires that students create a personalized profile with thorough identification measures. Signature Track profiles will cost students anywhere from $30 to $99, though there is a financial aid option for students who are unable to meet these cost requirements.

In order to become eligible for credit, students also must also take an online, proctored final exam once they complete the course. The online proctoring concept is a relatively new one, and Coursera is working with ProctorU [13] to enable worldwide proctoring through webcams.  Coursera plans to charge students $60 to $90 to take the proctored exam.

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Students who complete one of the five approved courses can request a transcript with the credit recommendations outlined from ACE, and present it to their colleges. For now, it remains the individual college’s decision to either grant or withhold credit for the ACE CREDIT approved Coursera MOOCs.

“We are delighted to now offer students more avenues for academic success and achievement, particularly at a time when rising higher education costs mean, for many, an incomplete degree, or no degree at all,” said Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera. “The possibilities that will come from allowing our students to receive transferable college credit are great, and we look forward to expanding this option to more courses and subjects in the coming months.”

Multiple representatives from the Course MOOC host universities expressed their happiness and anticipation for the future.

“As educators at UC Irvine, it is exciting to be a part of an online education milestone,” said Sarah Eichhorn, Assistant Vice Chair of Undergraduate Studies at UC Irvine’s mathematics department. “The two classes we’re offering through Coursera are the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. My colleague Dr. Rachel Lehman and I are thrilled that students around the world will not have the opportunity to view math as a doable, beautiful, powerful tool.”

Duke University’s Provost, Peter Lange agreed. “We are excited by this opportunity to experiment with new ways of using our MOOC courses to extend our educational reach and provide credit for students who would not otherwise have access to our faculty,” he said. “MOOCs, often in combination with the creativity of individual universities, have much potential to open and enrich the educational offerings available to students across the United States and the globe. We are pleased to be part of these efforts.”