{"id":19927,"date":"2017-05-10T11:22:15","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T15:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=19927"},"modified":"2021-08-13T10:10:40","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:10:40","slug":"blog-learn-pace-long-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2017\/blog-learn-pace-long-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: Learn at your own pace as long as you pay"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Cheung, Associate Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics<\/em><\/p>\n

When Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) began to take traction in 2011, there was much fanfare about how higher education could be democratized<\/a>.\u00a0The possibility of opening up courses offered at top universities for the masses led some to believe that the gap between the haves and the have-nots would finally close.\u00a0Unfortunately, more than half a decade later, there are no clear signs that the gap has closed.\u00a0In fact, the gap might have widened<\/a>.\u00a0To make matters worse, some free MOOCs have become semi-free.<\/p>\n

To recuperate part of the cost of developing and running MOOCs, at least two major MOOC platforms have adopted a monthly subscription model<\/a> for verified certificates for completion of courses or programs.<\/p>\n

Under this model, there is not a fixed price for taking a course.\u00a0Instead, there is a monthly charge for accessing a course until completion.\u00a0In other words, students can take as much time as they need (though still with certain hard deadlines) to complete a course provided they keep paying the monthly fee.<\/p>\n

Therefore, one who works through the material slowly can end up paying a lot more than one who works through the material quickly.\u00a0To be fair, some platforms do offer various types of financial aid.\u00a0As to who qualifies, one will have to read the fine print.<\/p>\n

Even though the paid version of a course offers more bells and whistles (such as access to mentors, feedback from human experts, extra graded exercises etc.), the monthly subscription model makes learning at one\u2019s own pace a luxury for those who can afford it.\u00a0As a result, when it comes to democratizing education, MOOCs have not yet lived up to the hype.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Cheung, Associate Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics When Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) began to take traction in 2011, there was much fanfare about how higher education could be democratized.\u00a0The possibility of opening up courses offered at top universities for the masses led some to believe that the gap between the haves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlog: Learn at your own pace as long as you pay - 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