Contrairement à ce qui avait été annoncé dans le New York Times ce lundi (et que nous rapportions ici), l’affirmation à l’effet que la University of Washington offrirait des crédits pour des MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) suivis chez son partenaire Coursera était pour le moins exagérée. Steve Kolowich du Inside Higher Ed est allé valider certains faits auprès du provost de l’institution, David P. Szatmary.
But Szatmary, Washington’s provost, says the university does not plan to offer course credit for its MOOCs. What it does plan to do is offer people the option of paying to take versions of its Coursera offerings that include additional layers of online instruction and assessment that will be make the courses “more conventional.”
According to the provost, people who choose the “enhanced” versions of Washington’s Coursera offerings will pay for the opportunity to earn a certificate. And the prices will not be significantly lower than those of the existing certificate programs offered through the university’s center for professional and continuing education, Szatmary says. Those typically range from $2,500 to $4,000 per three-course program, he says.
[…] Washington, like many universities, still links creditworthiness and a threshold of contact between students and instructors — and actual MOOCs, which often enroll more than 100,000 students in a single course, don’t pass muster. [notre emphase]
Plus tôt dans l’article, on explique que les cours en ligne de l’Université de Washington chez Coursera ne seront plus vraiment des MOOC :
The “enhanced” versions will add a number of features designed to make them more closely resemble conventional online courses — including more assessments, direct interaction with instructors, and the opportunity to earn a certificate that hypothetically could be redeemed for course credit.
But the “enhanced” MOOCs will also come with price tags and enrollment caps. And while students might be able to redeem their completion certificates for credit toward a University of Washington degree, they could do so only if they enrolled as tuition-paying students at the university, says David P. Szatmary, the provost.
Apart from residing online and on the Coursera platform, these “enhanced” and potentially credit-bearing courses will hardly qualify as MOOCs.
Pas d’inscription gratuite en ligne pour qui le veut, pas de « soutien pédagogique » fourni essentiellement par les pairs sur des forums, de possibilité d’abandonner comme on le veut sans conséquence, etc.
Source : Kolowich, Steve, « Without Credit », Inside Higher Ed, 18 juillet 2012.
