"... a way for students who may not do well on traditional measures like the SAT to prove they can hack it."
That’s the argument by officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which on Wednesday announced a plan to create what it calls an "inverted admissions" process, starting with a pilot project within a master’s program in supply-chain management.
... Students who come to the program after first taking the MOOCs will then essentially place out of the first half of the coursework, so they can finish the degree in a semester rather than an academic year. That effectively makes the master’s program half the usual price.
ADDED: With so much hanging on success in the MOOCs, how will MIT deal with cheating? Here's an article from last month in the MIT News:
"Study identifies new cheating method in MOOCs/Research from MIT and Harvard shows how to exploit and protect MOOC certification":
In this [new] method of cheating, a user creates multiple accounts, one of which is the primary account that will ultimately earn a certificate. The other accounts are used to find or “harvest” the correct answers to assessment questions for the master account.
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Someone who wants to go to MIT for a Masters Degree is driven enough that they are the type who will succeed in a MOOC. Self-discipline is what is required.
I also appreciate how it levels the playing field for International Applicants coming from unknown institutions.
I would assume any MOOC will have limited assessment. It can have tests with multiple-choice or numeric answers. It won't be able to handle grading of essays or projects. ( At least not until AI makes a good bit of progress. )
I think what MIT is doing is a step in the right direction. But why does the second year have to be on campus? Why not all online? Unless you are doing research that requires you to be in a physical lab you should be able to do the whole thing online.
( Full disclosure- I'm currently a grad student in Georgia Techs' online master's in Comp Sci. I'm also a grader for one of their classes. )
I'd worry that, with so much hanging on success in the MOOCs, that students will have even more motivation and capacity to cheat.
It makes great economic sense for the student, but the pilot program may not be a predictor of success in other fields. A Masters in Supply Chain whatever isn't likely to be the median or representative field of study. Well, maybe at MIT.
The economic problem will occur if it successful. If more programs are designed this way, the amount of time on campus will be greatly reduced. The infrastructure cost of the university (e.g. housing, common areas, sports facilities) will remain fairly fixed. They need students to fill those luxury dorms and eat the overpriced food.
A *lot* of high school kids seek out smaller schools just to avoid this kind of teaching.
Me, personally, it works for me. My youngest son has struggled to complete the "health" course (what we'd have called PE back in the day) online.
-XC
For quite some time, colleges have been looking at their degrees as access to a brand that carries a minimum price measured by time in residence (4 years) and less on achievement and mastery of a subject. Fancy dorms, student rec facilities and expensive sports teams are mere marketing tactics. This will not be the normal course in the future. It's unaffordable for the colleges and the students.
Ann Althouse said...I'd worry that, with so much hanging on success in the MOOCs, that students will have even more motivation and capacity to cheat.
That's a legit worry, but the offsetting force is that the school will have even more motivation to prevent cheating--a prestigious school risks its reputation if some of its classes are seen as easy/cheatable, and that'll drag down the institution as a whole. The school has to find a balance between the benefit (in terms of increased tuition $) of offering MOOCs and the costs (in terms of potentially watering down or harming their brands) of doing so. It's in the school's interest to design courses to prevent cheating and/or retain the rigor of the non-MOOC course when delivered in an MOOC format.
Georgia Tech is working on a lot of these problems, and so far their MOOC offerings have been very popular.
Althouse: "Here's an article from last month in the MIT News: "Study identifies new cheating method in MOOCs/Research from MIT and Harvard shows how to exploit and protect MOOC certification":"
I'm betting that this "MOOC" Supply Chain course is really just the "distractor" and MIT's real intent is to identify candidates for a Masters in Forensic IT!
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