Coursera Gets ACE Credit Approval for Five MOOCs

The American Council on Education had announced last fall that they would have their College Credit Recommendation Service assess the creditworthiness of massive open online courses.  ACE CREDIT evaluated and recommended college credit for five courses on Coursera. ACE CREDIT is a recognized authority in assessing non-traditional education experiences, with more than 2,000 colleges and universities considering their recommendations in determining the applicability to their course and degree programs.

Coursera announced yesterday that the five courses approved for college credit recommendation include four undergraduate credit courses:
Pre-Calculus from the University of California, Irvine
Introduction to Genetics and Evolution from Duke University
Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach from Duke University
Calculus: Single Variable from the University of Pennsylvania
And one course approved for developmental math vocational credit recommendation: Algebra from the University of California, Irvine

The bigger news is that an accrediting group has approved any MOOCs and that it has moved rather quickly, for the education world.

There are a lot of people willing to take courses that are free for no credit. There are also people willing to pay a small fee to take courses in order to receive something like a certificate that indicates they completed the coursework at a satisfactory level. There is a much smaller number of people (and always has been) who are willing to pay a lot of money to an institution in order to receive credits that lead to a degree from an accredited institution.

I hope that very soon colleges will recognize that and see that MOOCs can threaten their existence OR offer new opportunities for growth. Some of the elite schools seem to have recognized that already. Unfortunately, many are turning away - if not barricading the door to the ivory tower.

More at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/07/ace-deems-5-massive-open-courses-worthy-credit#ixzz2KK2xHLBr

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