Return of the MOOCs | City Journal

Return of the MOOCs | City Journal

How one entrepreneur is trying to turn massive open online courses (MOOCs) into a low-cost on-ramp for higher education:

"For the millions of students taking free courses online, the road to college credits was unlikely to run through Washington. Klinsky soon shifted his efforts toward helping these students gain credit through existing channels. 'The lightbulb went on,' he remembers, when he noticed that 'there are already ways to get credit through the College Board exam process.' Thus arrived the Freshman Year for Free program. The Modern States website would offer video courses structured to match the content and skill level of these credit-granting exams.

"The most widely taken College Board exams are the Advanced Placement tests, offered to high school students annually. For online-course students, however, the lesser-known College Level Examination Program tests are much more accessible--available on demand at more than 1,800 examination centers. Klinsky and his partners began developing courses tailored to both AP and CLEP. He personally endowed a fund for the Freshman Year for Free program that would reimburse the $85 exam fees of the first 10,000 test-takers, making the path to credit free from start to finish. The College Board exams cover a full range of introductory-level topics; some persevering Modern States users will be able to complete an entire first year of college."