From the moment the American Council on Education announced in November that its College Credit Recommendation Service would assess the creditworthiness of a set of massive open online courses, there seemed to be little doubt that such approval would be forthcoming. And indeed, Coursera’s announcement today that five of its courses have earned credit recommendations from ACE felt just a little bit anticlimactic. But the decision — the latest in a series of remarkably fast-unfolding developments around MOOCs in an industry that historically moves at a glacial pace — nonetheless has significant implications that are likely to reverberate on campuses around the country. It represents the initial clearing of what could be the widest pathway yet for students enrolled in MOOCs to cash in “certificates” earned from those courses for credits on college campuses. The credit recommendations for the courses could also create headaches for colleges, though, as they will almost certainly speed up the rate at which current college students ask their institutions for credit for free courses they’ve taken elsewhere.

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by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Education.

Posted: February 7th, 2013, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.