Technology Advances

"Proponents of online education have long branded it as a way to bring free knowledge to the masses, but in a thought-provoking piece for The Awl, Maria Bustillos argues that the rise of so-called massively open online courses (MOOCs) may not bode well for the quality of higher education. As Bustillos points out, online programs are being rapidlyadopted at colleges across the US, where tight budgets and overcrowding are forcing some lawmakers to look for alternatives, but profit-driven interests from startups like Udacity are threatening to dilute the 'techno-utopian ideal' that MOOCs once promised with derivative facsimiles of a college education."