Brain Based Learning

MIT recently announced an exciting new initiative, known as MITx. This new platform will offer many of the MIT courses to the public for free, and will have a certification component for those who want to pay a nominal fee and show mastery of the material. This is fantastic news, especially from the University that pioneered free online learning through it’s Open Courseware project. Bloggers and Tweeters alike are broadcasting the coming of unlimited free higher ed for everyone and predicting that soon millions of learners will be participating in MITx.

While I think this is a great idea, and applaud the initiative by MIT to constantly push the envelope when it comes to online education and accessible learning, this is also not the first time that free education has been available. Most universities have some kind of policy about auditing classes for free (not for credit); granted this sometimes applies only to fee-paying students and always applies to those physically near the school (while a student at Queens College, CUNY in NY I often walked the halls with the elderly men and women in the Seniors program). Similarly, the Open University and the University of the People aim to provide free higher education for anyone who wants it and have both been in operation for a while.

Education is a great thing, and free education is a wonderful thing. In reality though, many (most?) people pursue a higher education because of the employment opportunities the degree offers. Without some kind of certification, the education itself is not as desirable (I’m not talking philosophically here, or denigrating the power of education – merely speaking to people’s choices). The rise of Microsoft- and Adobe-sponsored, among other, certification courses, speaks to the importance of an objective seal of approval on someone’s knowledge and education. Community colleges and associates degrees are another example of this type of profession oriented certification.

So, I do see this initiative as being popularly embraced, and being useful for certain situations – most likely professional. Will it redesign the face of education? Probably not – students will still graduate high school and feel the need to earn a degree, not just take courses for a certification (in fact, more people than ever are pursuing Master’s degrees and not stopping with a Bachelor’s). Working adults will continue to look for ways to upgrade their skills and make themselves eligible for promotions, or just be able to keep up with the changing face of technology.

Where I do see this having the most impact, is within the world of education itself. Imagine you’re a high school science teacher with a small group of students who would benefit from enrichment, but you don’t have the resources to create a separate curriculum for them. MITx is a perfect solution – an advanced curriculum that comes with an LMS. Homeschoolers will now have many more resources available to them, as will AP high school teachers.

So yes, I think this is a fantastic new initiative that will impact the face of education. But no, I don’t think this is a game changer that will reduce the need or desire for accredited degrees. I don’t see a big push for the MITx certification process to be ironed out any time soon, or to compete with existing certification programs except possibly in the areas that already have many certification options (programming, animation, adobe and microsoft products, etc). The trick, as with any innovation, is to figure out how to incorporate it into the existing frameworks without replacing anything that still works well – otherwise we haven’t progressed.

Tags: In The News, learning platform, LMS, MITx, Online Learning, Open education