Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Online Courses to help Colleges

Colleges Adapt Online Courses to Ease Burden - NYTimes.com


Nearly half of all undergraduates in the United States arrive on campus needing remedial work before they can begin regular credit-bearing classes. That early detour can be costly, leading many to drop out, often in heavy debt and with diminished prospects of finding a job.
...
So to reach students who are not ready for college-level work, or struggling with introductory courses, universities are beginning to add extra supports to the online materials, in hopes of improving success rates...



San Jose State (University) could become a living lab for (circuits course, a longstanding hurdle for would-be engineers), the first offering from edX, an online collaboration of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
...
The results were striking: 91 percent of those in the blended section passed, compared with 59 percent in the traditional class.


Online classes are like a public library: free and available, but used only occasionally.