by Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
Colleges and universities have offered online courses for years, but the embrace by elite higher education was “really a game-changer,” says Ray Schroeder, director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at the University of Illinois-Springfield. “Now we’ve really moved to disruption in higher education.” A looming question: Are MOOCs any good? Schroeder’s center, founded in 1997, is working with the American Council on Education to determine whether MOOCs can improve college completion rates, particularly among low-income young adults and older adult learners. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is supporting that effort, and the edX pilot program with community colleges. Last week, it announced 12 grants totaling more than $3 million to study MOOCs, which “hold great promise, but are not without challenges,” says Dan Greenstein, who directs the foundation’s higher education efforts.
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