MOOC REFLECTIONS: Yesterday, the New York Times gave a consolidated summary of setbacks that MOOC providers have faced over the last year. That summary includes details from a recent UPenn study, which found that "on average, only about half of those who registered for a course ever viewed a lecture, and only about 4 percent completed the courses." The article also calls out San Jose State's troubled partnership with Udacity earlier this year, where students who took MOOCs performed worse than students who took classes on campus. Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun admitted that "we don't educate people as others wished, or as I wished. We have a lousy product." The NYTimes article sheds light on changes that current MOOC providers are making, including Coursera's efforts to experiment with using its courses in small discussion classes at U.S. consulates.
