Paying for credit

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Vtaylor

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Aug 15, 2014, 6:21:06 AM8/15/14
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There is considerable interest from students in earning credit of completing open courses. Many MOOCs and open courses do offer the option of receiving credit or certification and there is normally a fee associated with that.

Just curious
  • What is the range of costs to students for credit or certification?
  • What percentage of the registered students do get credit or certification? How is that handled by the granting institution?
  • What is the region of origin for students seeking credit? Are they in the same region as the granting institution? Are they in regions without credit granting institutions? Are the students in regions where credit granting institutions can not serve all the students wanting credit through traditional courses?

Thanks.

Wayne Mackintosh

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Aug 15, 2014, 6:45:06 AM8/15/14
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Hi Valerie,

Of interest which MOOC providers offer options for formal academic credit towards University degrees?

W


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Fabiana Kubke

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Aug 15, 2014, 7:01:21 AM8/15/14
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Wayne,
I do a few coursera courses and there is the option of getting a validated identity certificate for a fee and now I am taking a series of courses which I could put together as a specialisation, also for a fee.
Fabiana

Wayne Mackintosh

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Aug 15, 2014, 7:10:21 AM8/15/14
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Hi Fabiana,

Yes I'm aware of Coursera's signature track. Do you know of any published examples of learners applying these certificates toward university credit or other MOOC providers which provide pathways to credit for university degrees.

Wayne Mackintosh
OER Foundation
UNESCO, COL & ICDE Chair in OER
(Mobile)

Fabiana Kubke

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Aug 15, 2014, 7:38:33 AM8/15/14
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No, I haven't looked into it, to be honest. I wonder if for example Roger Peng's courses would count towards John's Hopkins credit? Let me see if I can do some digging. 
Cheers
Fabiana

Fabiana Kubke

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Aug 15, 2014, 7:50:44 AM8/15/14
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Hi - I found this http://www.antioch.edu/antioch-announcement/antioch-university-becomes-first-us-institution-to-offer-credit-for-mooc-learning-through-coursera/ 

So if the news of the first US Uni offering Credit for MOOCS is from May 2014 I think it would be safe to assume we wont be seeing any data for at least a year? 

Cheers
Fabiana

Vtaylor

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Aug 15, 2014, 10:23:54 AM8/15/14
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The except below got this discussion started... And my question - then does it make a difference to the students, the instituition and/or the employer if the student has to pay something to receive the credit or certification? Does cost change the validity or significance to any of the parties?

From Donnalee Donaldson

In Rwanda, there are only enough university seats for less than 10% of the college-aged population. So there are thousands of students who want a university education, and they consider MOOCs or other online courses to be a great alternative. People place an extremely high value on certificates/certification here, so even having a Coursera certificate affiliated with a prominent US institution would be valued. Many of my students believe that employers will be impressed by any certification or degree coming from a US institution. The fact that it is online doesn't matter.

Joyce.M...@esc.edu

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Aug 15, 2014, 10:19:39 PM8/15/14
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I imagine that at least in the US charges would be of two kinds.  Usually, students would charged whatever the college or university's "usual and customary" fees are per credit hour...which can vary from a few hundred to a thousand dollars or more depending on many things such as the perceived "prestige" of the institution.  In a few cases where colleges have mechanisms for awarding credits through Prior Learning Assessment, the fees could be considerably less, but often PLA would only be awarded to matriculated students as part of an approved degree. 

I would hope that eventually OERu member institutions would grand credit for OERu courses at a reasonable fee that would be far less than the "usual and customary" rates but I suppose this would be an individual institutional decision.  Hope this helps a bit.  Joyce McKnight

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Date: 08/15/2014 06:21AM
Subject: [WikiEducator] Paying for credit

Sean

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Aug 18, 2014, 9:19:57 AM8/18/14
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Valerie et al.,

I am not sure how well this fits into your general inquiry or how well it would apply outside of North America, but the Saylor Academy offers a number of courses -- not MOOCs, exactly -- that connect to credit. Many of these are simply aligned to existing PLA and competency-based exams, but 11 connect to credit recommendation (by the National College Credit Recommendation Service [U.S., Canada] and by ACE) directly via a proctored Saylor exam.

Costs are fairly minimal -- the price of a proctor ($25 USD or free, if the student finds their own) and whatever transcripting and/or transfer fees may be imposed by schools. Saylor works with partner schools to offer guaranteed credit recognition, but students are free to seek acceptance at their home institutions, especially within the broad NCCRS and ACE partner networks.

Saylor has also had students get credit from their home institutions directly from a normal end-of-course certificate, both proctored and non-proctored.


I'm happy to offer more details or respond directly to Valerie's bullet points below!

Sean

Sean Connor
Director of Community Relations
The Saylor Academy

Vtaylor

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Aug 19, 2014, 6:07:44 AM8/19/14
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Thanks Sean

Do you have any information on participation in Saylor Academy courses by students and/or institutions in Africa?

Do you have any information about student access to the courses, for example, from school computers, home computers, mobile devices?



On Monday, August 18, 2014 9:19:57 AM UTC-4, Sean wrote:
Valerie et al.,

I am not sure how well this fits into your general inquiry or how well it would apply outside of North America, but the Saylor Academy offers a number of courses -- not MOOCs, exactly -- that connect to credit. ...
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