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I will agree with that, CDFox.

The MOOCS are not a substitute for IRL university ( I read about that guy from Mongolia and posted here about him a while ago) but they are a very fine resource. Further, they have spread the reach of knowledge out. The WWW really has revolutionized the potential for education. Just laying in bed at 3am on my ipad I can access information that even 25 years ago I would have had to go to a university research library to get. MOOCS are here to stay.

To the OP"s point they might as well be done in place of the large intake introductory classes where there is no meaningful interaction with a lecturer/professor AND ideally could be taken ahead of actual attendance.

I can see them useful to for kids (and nominal adults like myself) who are dabblers, tinkerers and delvers into knowledge. For a kid that 'thinks' a subject is interesting this approach allows them try things out before committing, too. This more of an issue outside the US where late adolescents are encouraged to specialise from undergraduate studies onwards.

Non-residential higher education and short non-degree programs would get a big boost if students could use Federal financial aid to pay for them. Some legislators are thinking about this. There is the risk that Federal money attracts unscrupulous providers and encourages schools to raise prices.

What about Federal and state scholarships for online courses for students who can show that they have exhausted the offerings at their high school?

Emerging Path to Federal Aid
Inside Higher Education
April 9, 2015
By Paul Fain

I am a professor at a fairly large college campus at a state school, so I have watched these educational changes happen up close. Honestly, I loved my college experience. Having meaningful discussions with other like minded students are some of my fondest memories. However, school has moved to a business model as opposed to a strong liberal arts model that is focused on helping an individual to become more educated. While this business model better serves the masses, online education being a part of it, it takes away what is important and meaningful about the college experience. The truth is that about 60% percent of the students at college really don't belong here and it has watered down the entire experience.

Thank you so much for saying that, Sallymom.

I'd go even further and state that with that additional 60% on the campus, "education" in lower-division coursework has often been reduced to buzzword bingo and busy-work that those 60% can manage...

and with workflow that the erstwhile faculty in charge of monsters like introductory writing or comm courses can also manage... (meaning scantron exams, etc.)

and the result is quite predictable for the kids on this board. We've seen some of this first hand. It's been maddening to have a kid who can learn at a (true) university level, but who is trapped in coursework that expects scarf-and-barf feats of rote memorization instead of critical thinking and deep understanding.

Someone up-thread noted that the MOOC/online experience could be used in introductory coursework. I know of several campuses where this is being done already-- well, sort of, anyway.

The gist of it is that students enrolled in a large intro course at an institution (let's call it UCLA for argument) which has historically had a huge failure rate in that course [i]has now created a "flipped" system where students use the MOOC as a sort of preparatory/review feature PRIOR to attending their first (large) lecture in that course.

It's still pretty experimental, but results have been somewhat promising-- students who do complete the MOOC tend to not fail the course, so that part works. At least, maybe it does. Maybe it's that the MOOC is helping, and then again, maybe it's that the students who are self-motivated enough to complete the MOOC are those more likely to succeed in the course to begin with, and this just helps them out some.

Hm.

University of Florida apparently just admitted 3000 freshmen to the Uni but into an online course only for the first year. Interesting points, according to the article, the students didn't apply for that and were not aware it was online only.

I thought of this thread when I came across this NPR piece about the slower than expected growth of MOOCs. Interesting study observations were that a large segment of users are existing teachers (particularly doing continuing ed -- those already considered well-educated), and students from other countries than the U.S., and that growth and acceptance seems to be limited by assessment and assessment security.

New Research Shows Free Online Courses Didn't Grow As Expected

(Actual study link in text of link above)
HarvardX and MITx: Two Years of Open Online Courses (Study)

(*Edited to fix html)

Soon you may be able to through Arizona State:

MOOCs for (a Year's) Credit
Inside Higher Education
April 22, 2015
By Carl Straumsheim

I received a message on Global Freshman Academy today - that's the edX and ASU partnership - https://www.edx.org/gfa

Personally, I am giving it serious thought for my ds. It's going to be a snip compared to the tuition and fees for a private school someone suggested. We're homeschooling anyway and it looks better, and cheaper, every day!