Discussion MOOC Certificates & Credentials

[Claude Almansi]

Thanks for "Coursera believe this term [course certificate] is clearer to learners, and to everyone earners might want to share their Coursera certificates with, such as employers, colleagues, and friends.". It's less misleading than "our research shows that this term..." in Coursera's blog post.

Writing that a "research shows" something without referencing that research is a time-hallowed rhetorical trick of advertisements for toothpastes, washing powders and miracle slimming cures. So this use of the phrase should automatically trigger skepticism.

True, if data protection is essential for a job, an employer should normally reject anyone with a Coursera certificate, whether "course" or "verified", as getting it implies that the person accepted to provide a commercial company with sensitive data (their picture, a picture of their ID, letting Coursera install a keyboard monitoring software on their computer).

But if data protection is not essential, then wouldn't an employer be more impressed by someone presenting a "verified certificate" - got before August 3 - than by someone else with a "course certificate" - got after August 3 - for the same course?

Then about "In addition, the MOOC platform has started to offer identity verification in many courses for free": so Coursera graciously allows learners to let it have their valuable data without charging them for that into the bargain? From a check of over 100 on-demand courses with the certificate option, none offered the certificate itself for free.

So it would be advisable to think twice before signing up for a Coursera certificate, and not to do the identity verification unless you are really sure you want to get a certificate.

 

[Muvaffak GOZAYDIN]

Out of these 2 platforms, is there one that is better than the other? What's the difference between the 2 if you take one of their courses?

Sure.
Coursera is for profit . They say so . " We made this to make Money. But how we can make Money, we didnot decide yet "
Coursera courses do not have any academic value, mostly short ones .
Coursera is great marketing company . They made online very popular in the World .

EDX is full of Academy . They are almost same courses taught at MIT and Harvard .
It is shame they do not provide degrees .
EDX has a great future. Look up ASU Arizona State University Global Freshmen Academy,
online courses for $ 600 per 3-credit courses. If you do not pass the course you do not pay tuition . Wonderful . That is a revolution .

 

[Muvaffak GOZAYDIN]

The problem in the USA is
1.- HE quality is not good . 3200 Two and four year colleges are too many .
To me only first 200 4-year colleges are wortwhile to attend and graduate and get a degree. Then one can find a decent job .

2.- HE is expensive. Then we have to use technology in order to get down the cost .
That is online for time being. Later " adaptive learning , " personalized learning "
and more . Today cost of an online can be as low as $ 100 per course.
To convert a f2f course to online format is nill. Look up www.openedx.org provided by MIT, Harvard,Stanford . It used to be $ 100-200.000 per course .
Only cost is supervision of the course by an instructor . Platform cost is also nill .

 

[Muvaffak GOZAYDIN]

Everyon is doing the same, if now now, will do it in the future! Why, because it's saves money, and more important it attracts new customers to platform. You can get verified certificate on self- paced. Who wouldn't buy verified ce

MOOC is a synonym from college program, distance learning. MOOC aren't here to replace University, they can't. They can provide additional knowledge to the students, and the open masses. For edX they can be promotional tool for MIT. As we agree Coursera and others are financial oriented they must develop to sustain their business model. For now I thing that they are going in wrong way,

 

[Muvaffak GOZAYDIN]

Identify the problem.
If you can do it, then you can solve the problem.
Today still we did not identify the problem.
What is it ?

 

[Aviv]

MIT Master’s Program to Use MOOCs as ‘Admissions Test’