Controversy has surrounded massive open online courses (MOOCs) since their inception.聽 Some believe MOOCs will broaden access to higher education and bring down costs, while others fear the rush to embrace MOOCs may come at the expense of academic quality. To help settle this debate, the (ACE) revealed yesterday a 鈥渨ide-ranging research and evaluation effort鈥� of MOOCs鈥� academic potential, including a pilot project to determine whether some MOOCs should be eligible for college credit.聽 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded ACE nearly $900,000 to pursue these activities鈥攐ne of the foundation鈥檚 13 .
ACE鈥檚 pilot project will examine 5 to 10 MOOCs offered by Coursera (one of the largest MOOC providers.) beginning next year. Teams of faculty will compare these MOOCs to traditional college courses, evaluating their contents, teaching methods, and student engagement. To pass the review and be recommended for credit, Coursera must find a way to authenticate its students鈥� identities鈥攁 difficult task considering thousands of students can register for each course. Coursera hopes to address this challenge by partnering with online proctoring companies that monitor tests remotely and verify students鈥� IDs via special software and webcams.
According to the , if ACE believes a course deserves academic credit, students who want to earn that credit would pay a fee for the proctored exam.聽 If those students want a transcript that they can submit to other schools, they鈥檒l need to pay another fee (Coursera鈥檚 offerings are otherwise free).
It should be noted that even if ACE recommends a course for credit, individual colleges must still decide whether to accept those credits. While higher education institutions (as represented by ACE) and the Gates Foundation may believe in the potential of MOOCs鈥�, it is unclear whether colleges will actually welcome MOOC transfer credits.