EdX, Udacity, Coursera: Should celebrities teach MOOCs?

The New Rock-Star Professor

Should celebrities teach online classes?

By Jeffrey R. Young

Jeffrey R. Young is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Casting Matt Damon in a MOOC is just an idea, for now.
Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters

A portion of this article was adapted from Jeff Young’s e-book, Beyond the MOOC Hype: A Guide to Higher Education's High-Tech Disruption.

Free online courses do big numbers these days. So-called MOOCs, or massive open online courses, typically get tens of thousands of sign-ups to watch video lectures delivered by tweedy academics, some more photogenic than others. But imagine how many students would tune in—or make it through the class without dropping out—if instead of bookish professors, Hollywood stars delivered the lessons...

Full article in : http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense.html

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