MOOCs Are Moving Forward
December 05, 2012
MOOCs add to a tradition of what is known as distance learning
From VOA Learning English, this is EXPLORATIONS in Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.
And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about the growing popularity of Massive Open Online Courses in higher education.
The movement toward education by computer is developing fast. Massive Open Online Courses, called MOOCs, are changing how people learn in many places. For years, people could receive study materials from colleges or universities and take part in online classes. But such classes were not designed for many thousands of students at one time, as MOOCs are.
Course materials provided by MOOCs can serve both those studying far away from school and those attending classes in person. Anyone with a computer and an online connection can sign up for a MOOC. Students do not have to pass entrance exams. They also do not need to have studied the subject before.
One professor praised MOOCs because they let people who could not attend a traditional college continue their education. He asked, “Who knows where the next Albert Einstein will come from?”
The spread of Internet learning for huge numbers of people is leading some colleges to join the movement. Major universities like Stanford in California and Harvard in Massachusetts have invested millions of dollars to help launch MOOCs. Those schools and others may have heard an attention-getting prediction. The man who created the MOOC service Udacity says that in fifty years, only ten traditional universities will remain in the world.
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