Canada’s largest university has joined the likes of Princeton and Stanford in exploring what could be the biggest disruptor to formal education; free online education. The school, along with 11 other international institutions have partnered with a start-up called Coursera to offer “massive open online courses” or MOOCs, which are available for anyone to sign up to.
Ironically, both the term MOOC as well as the idea behind it is widely believed to be Canadian designed, even though our country has been extremely slow in adopting the technology. U of T will launch five pilot courses that will run 4-6 weeks beginning this fall.
The courses and the concept of MOOCs as a whole are widely seen as a way to not only provide free learning to people regardless of their geographic location, but also a wonderful way for schools to market their brand internationally. We are positive that U of T would take no issue in their school becoming well known by the middle class in parts of the developing world such as India and Brazil, as international students are always coveted.
Although no money is being exchanged between the university and Coursera, they are lending quality professors and course materials to the initiative. Seeing as MOOCs are relatively new concept, the collaboration is most likely attempting to determine how best to utilize open courses and online learning to maximize the experience and monetize it down the line.
U of T is to be commended for their union with Coursera as they recognize that online education and wide scale learning seem to be the future.
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