Higher education online: a comparative analysis of online programs for free university-level education

• Main Author: Iwerks, Evan (Evan C.)
• Other Authors: Leslie Pack Kaelbling and Tomas Lozano-Perez.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2014
• Subjects: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85393

Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2012. === Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. === Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-66). === The advent of online education programs has made university-level course material available to anyone with an internet connection. Top universities across the United States have begun offering online versions of their premier courses for free. Simply offering these courses is not enough to fully support free online education, however. In order to match more traditional, offline teaching methods, the online teaching field will need rapid iteration. To move forward with this iteration process, universities developing online courses need to first evaluate the effectiveness of their current programs. This thesis provides one evaluation perspective, using six heuristic categories (presentation style, presentation size, grading & evaluation, goals & rewards, staff support, and community) to evaluate three high-caliber, online, university-level programs (Coursera, edX, and Udacity). This thesis also offers insights into how to improve upon these programs to better meet the needs of students seeking higher education online. === by Evan Iwerks. === M. Eng.