On Education

Online courses have been around for a long time.  But more recently, top universities such as Harvard, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon have started to offer extensive online curriculums at free of cost.  

Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, let colleges reach vast audiences at relatively low cost, but they have not yet made money from them. And if it becomes possible in years to come to get a complete college education from an elite institution online, free or at relatively low cost, experts wonder whether some colleges will find it harder to attract students willing to pay $20,000, $40,000 or even $60,000 a year for the traditional on-campus experience.

Analysts say that universities will eventually try to profit from MOOCs, by way of charging tuition, advertising, or selling information on students.  William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University of Maryland, said a standard college class in the future will be a hybrid of in-person and online elements.  Read the full article here.