MOOCs rise to the task of making college affordable, accessible and adaptable

Nowadays, mass open online courses (MOOCs) could just be the answer to the rising barriers of attending college. In 2012, it cost the average student $33,716 to attend a four-year institution, when barely 20 years ago, it would have cost the same student just $15,306.

MOOCs cater to those who cannot, or find it difficult to attend college, as they provide a low-cost investment into higher education. They are certainly much less expensive than attending a university, sometimes being offered for free and in addition, they are much more flexible than a traditional higher education course: you can take them at your own pace and when you have the free time. Certain demographics benefit in particular, such as full-time workers, single parent families and those in technical industries in which retraining is necessary after skills become outdated.

There has been a rapid shift towards providing MOOCs. Indeed, 22 of the 25 top leading universities in the U.S. offer some type of online courses. USC offers graduate school programs online and many undergraduate lectures, particularly in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics departments, routinely record their lectures and make them available online for students to access.

Unfortunately, MOOCs are not generally recognized as having the same prestige as attending a four-year institution. The general public sees the simple admission into a university as evidence of a student’s calibre, something which enrolment in an MOOC cannot recreate.

Indeed, there is no formal accreditation that is widely recognised by employers. It is this prestige that ensures that the demand for a four-year institution will never be overtaken by MOOCs. But the number of enrollers in MOOCs is definitely rising, and this growth is showing no signs of stopping.