San Jose State MOOC Experiment Suggests MOOC Pushers May Be Selling Snake Oil

by Michael Hiltzik Let it not be said that San Jose State University hasn’t taught the world a valuable lesson in the promises and pitfalls of the fancy new craze for online university learning. The Cal State University campus set itself up as a pioneer in the field in January, when it announced plans to enroll up to 300 students in three introductory online courses; the fee would be $150, a deep discount from the usual cost of more than $2,000. Governor Jerry Brown, who had been pushing the state’s public universities to embrace high-tech teaching modes, was on hand to mark […]