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Coursera: Log on and learn: the promise of access in online education
Editor’s note: this article was originally published in Forbes on September 19th. Much of the discussion and debate around bringing higher education online has touched upon the implications of putting course material online versus in-person teaching. There are many questions floating around, such as how will students benefit from online classes if course credit isn’t given? What does the future hold for traditional brick and mortar institutions? While these points are important and not to be dismissed, there is a key issues that education pundits are often overlooking: the issue of access. For millions of people around the world, the choice is not between attending traditional university and online courses, between hearing a lecture in-person and watching one online. As Princeton professor Mitch Duneier said in a recent op-ed on Chronicle of Higher Education, for many students, the choice is between online education and no education at all. Here are some compelling…