Are Massive Open Online Courses A Possible Alternative To Traditional American Education?

The value of attending a university is not that you learned something, but that you can prove how well you learned it. Yet knowledge wants to be free, and it's impossible for universities to maintain a monopoly on teaching. The future of traditional higher education is at risk in America. The 100 Billion dollar question is; are Massive Open Online Courses a viable alternative to traditional American education?

With today’s college degree being the new high school diploma, many experts believe the value of college degrees are watered down. Yet society dictates higher education is a necessity for anyone striving for job security in a hugely competitive job market. What options exist for students to earn an education that will lend to their ability

While corporations and politicians hail getting a college degree as being the holy grail of to do’s in order to achieve upward mobility in society; cash strapped students should be aware of some advantages MOOCs offer. Consequently, studies show getting a degree doesn’t guarantee the beholder his or her dream job. Degree holders may still find themselves in entry level jobs earning at or close to minimum wage. Imagine being a literary art major, trying to build a future and raise a family while earning low wages with twenty to eighty thousand dollars of tuition debt.

This is where MOOCs come into the picture. They do offer benefits, even though they are limited in terms of their reach and measurable effectiveness. The 100 Billion dollar question is; are MOOC’s a viable alternative to traditional American

Just know that MOOCs want a large audience, if they didn’t they wouldn’t have so many universities supporting their research and funding. Let’s look at a short list of schools offering MOOCs: Stanford, Cal Tech, Duke University, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Illinois, Georgia Institute of Technology, John Hopkins University, Princeton, Rice University, University of California San Francisco, University of Edinburgh, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, University of Toronto, University of Virginia, and University of Washington, Harvaord, Carnegie Mellon University, Queen Rania Foundation, MIT, UC Berkeley, National Chiao Tung University, Fort Hays State University, France Universite Numerique, King's College London, Bristol, Exeter, Warwick, East Anglia, Leeds, Lancaster, Southampton, Cardiff, Birmingham and St Andrews, Holland College, Regent University. There are hundreds more, but the picture is clear MOOCs and online education are here to stay. Thrun imagines, “that in 10 years, job applicants will tout their Udacity degrees. In 50 years, he says, there will be only 10 institutions in the world delivering higher education and Udacity has a shot at being one of them.” Thrun while the expert touts real larger than life claims, either that or he’s ringing a veritable alarm bell for