By KEVIN ABOUREZK, Lincoln Journal Star
As educators across the country work to reduce class sizes, some at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have been thinking about creating courses that could draw thousands. The trend toward massive open online courses — known as MOOCs — is a quandary for universities nationwide. On the one hand, it makes education freely accessible to everyone. On the other, it’s a threat to anyone who makes a living from education. At UNL, the issue is far from decided. In September, Chancellor Harvey Perlman charged a nine-member faculty committee with considering the question. “The responses range across the spectrum, as is often the case when technology has the potential to change the way we do things,” said Steve Goddard, task force chairman and head of the UNL Department of Computer Science and Engineering. “There’s excitement. There’s fear. It’s the unknown.”
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