MOOC U.

Does the rise of the “massive open online course” spell the end of the university as we know it? Through its academic and financial partnership with Coursera, Penn has professors in the fray, skin in the game, and a front-row view of higher education’s next big frontier. By Trey Popp

far into his celebrated class on I cranked it up another notch. Struck was from “Corporate Finance,” by Franklin Allen, Not Greek and Roman mythology, really flying now. Telemachus is in Pylos, the Nippon Life Professor of Finance and Peter Struck suddenly started he’s in Sparta, he’s hearing from Nestor and Economics, to “Experimental Genome talking very, very quickly. Menelaus, he’s getting bewitched by Helen, Science,” by pharmacology professor It was during his second lecture. Picking nudged by Athena disguised as Mentor, John Hogenesch and assistant professor up where he’d left off the week before—a everyone’s telling him what Orestes had to of genetics John Isaac Murray. And the bravura word-by-word translation of the do to avenge Agamemnon— University is expanding its offerings. first 10 lines of The Odyssey—the youthful And that’s when my brain almost boiled (See sidebar on p.61 for Penn’s current Penn classicist mused on Homer’s open- right out my ears. I hit the minus sign. Coursera catalog.) ing description of Telemachus as a whiny This Coursera thing was clearly going Penn also has a financial stake in layabout resigned to blaming the gods for to take some getting used to. Coursera. Three months after the company his bad luck. launched—with $16 million in venture- “Achilles was off conquering whole As you’ve probably heard, we are living capital funding and initial academic part- swatches of territory at this age,” Struck in the age of the MOOC. In the last year, nerships with Stanford, Penn, Princeton, was saying. “Twenty is plenty old enough “massive open online courses” have spread and the University of Michigan—Penn to step up and get things done!” through the higher-education landscape became an equity partner by making a joint Then, as he launched into Telemachus’s like kudzu on a Carolina roadside. Among investment with Caltech of $3.7 million. remedial education in how to work up some the several providers that have gained early (As of press time, Coursera had attracted righteous anger, Struck began jabbering prominence, Coursera stands out as a a total of $22 million in equity funding.) like an auction crier on a sugar high. particularly fast-growing enterprise. What the rise of the MOOC portends for It only worked in Safari. Firefox wouldn’t Founded by two Stanford professors in higher education is an open question. let me do it. I clicked a plus sign at the April 2012, the for-profit online education Coursera has been enrolling tens of thou- bottom of the screen and Struck instant- platform attracted more than a million sands of students in single classes (all of ly accelerated his pace by 25 percent. I hit users in its first four months—a faster which, so far, have been offered for free). the plus sign again. Struck sped up to a start than either Facebook or Twitter, They live everywhere from Kansas to 1.5x clip. It seemed like a miracle. If I could according to The New York Times. Kazakhstan, and are turning to MOOCs to power through the rest of the lecture just Penn accounts for a significant portion get everything from casual intellectual a little faster, I’d be able to knock out the of that growth. So far the University has enrichment to actual college credits. weekly quiz before my kids came home offered 19 courses on the platform—more Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller aims clamoring for sandwiches. I might get the than any of Coursera’s 32 other academ- to offer “most of the full university rest of the weekend to myself—and my ic partners aside from Stanford, which curriculum”—which she pegs at about Lego partners—after all. has also offered 19. Penn’s MOOCs range 5,000 courses—within three to five years.

56 MARCH | APRIL 2013 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE ILLUSTRATION BY MELINDA BECK THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2013 57 “I hope that in 10 years,” she adds, “we yet developed—to think about the way he recently ran a competition in which will look back and say, “Boy, I can’t they inform not just delivering course teams of students produced product pro- believe that the most predominant meth- material, but assessing student learning, totypes, and then simulated a market in od of teaching our students was to shove and doing it on a broad scale and in more which purchasing decisions were made them into an auditorium for an hour and efficient ways.” and profits computed. a half twice a week.” One of their fondest hopes is that the “For some years now,” Price adds, “stu- Koller, along with her co-founder Andrew MOOC format holds the key to “flipping dents entering institutions like Penn have Ng and a great many other people, believes the classroom.” This idea dates back to grown up in a media environment where that MOOCs will radically change the the 1990s, but gained a fervent following many of these tools seem second-nature world of higher education. around the time an MIT grad named to them. And they’re puzzled as to why their “The question is,” as Penn Provost Salman Khan started tutoring his niece faculty members aren’t using them.” Vincent Price puts it, “How?” in math over the Internet. When Khan started uploading his instructional videos on YouTube in 2006, their popularity and PEDAGOGY AND PROFITS REBOOT THE MISSION apparent effectiveness sparked wide- University officials decided to partner “We are in the business of creating and spread enthusiasm for the notion of “flip- with Coursera for several reasons—not disseminating knowledge,” says Edward ping” the conventional balance between the least of which is that the company’s Rock L’83, the director of Open Course classroom lectures and homework. founders reached out to Penn before any- Initiatives at Penn. “That’s what we do. Perhaps high-school teachers could take one else did. Another factor, Rock and We do it on campus, teaching students advantage of Khan’s knack for YouTube Price say, was Penn’s lack of expertise and doing research. We disseminate it teaching by assigning his tutorials (or in online education. in journal articles, we disseminate our others like them) as homework, and using Free, high-quality, online collegiate research in books, and we disseminate class time to help students apply the con- classes are not a brand new invention. our research in conferences all around cepts to problem sets. MIT has been putting entire courses on the world. We have a few satellite cam- Khan left his job as a hedge fund analyst the Web since 2002, and now offers, at puses. And the Internet is a place of in 2009 to devote himself to Khan Academy, no charge, more than 2,100 classes knowledge. So to be there—to be a pres- a non-profit educational organization that encompassing “virtually the entire cur- ence on the Internet and disseminate currently offers 3,900 “micro lectures” on riculum” of the university on its Open the knowledge that we’ve created through its YouTube channel, which has racked up CourseWare (OCW) website. More recent- the Internet—isn’t some tangential kind over 230 million views. ly, MIT teamed up with Harvard to found of activity. It’s core to our mission.” Price thinks MOOCs hold the same edX, a non-profit MOOC platform that Rock, the Saul A. Fox Distinguished potential for college classrooms. currently offers 24 courses produced by Professor of Business Law, is the Uni- “If you have well-developed technolo- one of six participating colleges. versity’s designated deep thinker on all gies to provide that didactic component,” “MIT, to their credit, did much to advance matters MOOC. Last year he was tapped he says, “it actually frees you up to do those technologies, and launched in many as a senior advisor to Price and President more of the intense, smaller-scale, what’s respects the Open Course movement,” Price Amy Gutmann on the issue. often called ‘high-touch’ kind of teaching. says. “But that investment in the technol- Part of the motivation for Penn’s embrace And for places like Penn, I think that’s ogy per se is what led them down that road. of MOOCs is altruistic. But while adminis- likely where the value-added will be.” Our lack of investment in this technology trators trumpet Coursera as a way for Penn Karl Ulrich, the CIBC Endowed Profes- was what permitted us to focus on what I to spread enlightenment, the University’s sor of Entrepreneurship and e-Com- think matters, which is the content and self-interested hopes for Coursera are more merce, is already on that path. He teach- the pedagogy, and to leave the technology varied and interesting. es a handful of classes on product design, to Coursera.” “What Coursera has made possible,” says management, and innovation at Whar- In Rock’s view, “There’s a really optimal Rock, “by virtue of the hype, if you will—the ton, and a Coursera class titled “Design: division of labor with a for-profit venture- glamor, the potential of teaching hundreds Creation of Artifacts in Society.” capital company taking care of, and tak- of thousands of students—is it has jump- “I believe my Coursera videos are more ing the risk of, developing the platform— started a conversation about technology effective educationally than the same something that Penn has no comparative in the classroom at Penn that we’ve been content delivered live,” he says. So he’s advantage at internally—and the univer- trying to get going for a long time.” been using them at Wharton. “I typically sities doing what they’re best at, which Like a growing number of educators, assign a module comprised of a handful is producing high-quality instruction.” Rock and Price believe that the tradi- of short videos and ask my students to It’s also attractive that, as both an aca- tional approach to both teaching and complete a challenging assignment based demic partner and an equity investor, Penn assessing students is outdated. on that material. They do this before our has the potential to cover the costs of pro- “This is an opportunity,” says Price, class meeting. We then use our class time ducing these courses—which run to about “for the faculty to grapple more seri- for an experience that can only be deliv- $50,000 a pop (consisting primarily of ously with that whole range of techno- ered with a group of 60 people sharing stipends for professors and teaching assis- logical opportunities—some of them not the same time and location.” For example, tants, along with the cost of videography)—

58 MARCH | APRIL 2013 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE with a double cut of Coursera’s profits, SMALL-SCREEN SCHOLARS Coursera and its competitors, by harness- should profits materialize. As it happens, some Penn faculty mem- ing vastly expanded bandwidth and ele- (Penn has not disclosed the details of bers are old hands when it comes to ments of social networking, are pushing its agreement with Coursera. According Internet teaching. Peter Struck has been online instruction into new territory. Lec- to the company, academic partner institu- doing it for 10 years. He got his start in tures are typically broken into short video tions will keep between 6 and 15 percent a broom closet on Market Street. segments (the mythology class usually fea- of revenues from classes taught by their “My bread-and-butter course has always tured 10 per week) and served “on demand.” professors, plus 20 percent of the profits. been this mythology class,” Struck said The image and sound quality is on par with Penn has also not disclosed how much of in the fall, shortly before his Coursera Netflix, professors can use tools like green- this revenue will flow to individual profes- debut. “I know that course best. So I screens and computer animations, and the sors; Rock says the formula is modeled decided to try that in an online format. online forums are more sophisticated. on the University’s patent policy.) In the early days, it felt a little bit like “The students ask questions, give their “I think of this largely as a set of invest- doing a TV show. It felt like you were on comments, and then they’re ‘liked’ or not ments I’m willing to make as an educator,” cable access. It was just me and my TA, by the class,” Struck explains. “And the says Price. “They’re necessary invest- and we had a camera, and a person behind ones that are liked most get bumped up ments, and I would make them in any the camera, and we were in a broom clos- to the top. So you wind up with an ongo- event. But the idea that we might defray et at the old College of General Studies ing referendum on the most salient some of those expenses makes the prop- office—literally a broom closet. issues ... It gives you this huge pool of osition that much more interesting.” Coursera’s venture-capital backers, of course, are betting on—and will no doubt “I think down the line you’re going to push for—profits well beyond that mod- est expectation. Which makes some Penn faculty members uneasy. have instructors who re-mix content “Penn always goes where the money is,” remarks John Puckett, a professor in that’s prepared by potentially one, two, or the Graduate School of Education who is currently working on a history of the three different instructors—or more—and University since World War II. “Coursera seems to be another way of providing create trajectories that make sense,” non-traditional instruction in a way that’s going to make money for the insti- says Coursera founder Daphne Koller. tution, because we’re one of the anchor institutions of American capitalism. “For all the pablum about pristine aca- “We sat next to each other, and I would information to draw from to see what’s demic values,” he adds, “they sometimes talk. My TA would monitor a chat room. working and what isn’t.” play a second fiddle. The question is, And we had an 800 number and people Still, before his course launched, Struck where does the slippery slope become a would call in—so we had a call-in section had no real idea how crowd-sourced com- mudslide?” of the program, where we would chat menting from some 40,000 students Price appears to be keeping Puckett’s back and forth, like a sort of Johnny Car- would actually play out. question in the front of his mind, and notes son/Ed McMahon setup.” Neither did I, until I tuned into the first that Penn has a nonexclusive agreement As Struck remembers it, the interactive of what would become a series of “screen- with Coursera. “We put our energy into element of that first experiment—back side chats” hosted by the professor and his this partnership,” he says. “It makes sense when most Americans accessed the teaching assistants. These supplemental to play this out in a way that benefits both World Wide Web via dial-up connec- video segments—filmed, unlike the main Coursera and Penn. But if at any point the tions—was “not all that robust.” video lectures, while the course was in company moves in a trajectory that’s not It got better with the next advance in progress—were largely dedicated to dis- consistent with our mission, there’s really webware, which coupled lectures with a cussing particularly interesting comment nothing lost by that. And to some extent stronger online-forum component. But for threads generated by the online forums. one could imagine a scenario where our Struck, that also counted as a drawback. One student had posted a comment investment in that company proves to have “At first I wondered, is this really right referencing a study of Homer’s color been a wise investment in a financial to have students basically passing notes descriptions by William Gladstone—who sense, even if we part ways and move in while I’m talking?” he recalls. was more famous for his four stints as very different directions.” “Multitasking is a euphemism for being British prime minister in the 19th cen- In the meantime, as Rock puts it, “What distracted,” he continues. “So it made me tury. Gladstone, who studied classics at we’re doing, in an incredibly cost-effective think that what I was accomplishing in Oxford, noted in a scholarly volume that way, is jumpstarting the integration of this online forum was hampered by the the word blue never appears in The Iliad technology into teaching on campus.” very nature of the delivery mechanism.” or The Odyssey. Yet this student had come

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2013 59 across that word in Robert Fagles’ discussion with half a dozen Penn students, essays. I actually found the latter element English translation, in a description of or delegated one of them to lead it. Filreis to be surprisingly valuable, since the pro- waves at the end of Book 2. and those teaching assistants participated cess of grading five other students’ work Struck and his teaching assistants heavily in Coursera’s online forums, and forced me to master the material to a took up the query. After discussing how hosted seven live webcasts in which they greater degree than if I’d only had to write the ancient Greeks perceived and talked interacted with distant learners. my own. It also seemed to produce pretty about colors—noting, for instance, their In the first one, Filreis issued a spontane- reliable evaluations. After the course, I linguistic predilection for deriving color- ous and impassioned defense of “over- asked Struck to grade one of my peer’s related terms from material objects—they reading,” an activity whose indispensabil- papers and (unbeknown to him) one of delved into the original Greek text. ity to decoding modern poetry may explain my own. He scored the first almost exact- The word Homer used at this junction why so many people avoid poems. ly as I had, and reckoned that my paper is porphyreos. “When I go and buy a car,” he began, merited an A-minus, which was more or “A famous dye in antiquity is linked to abruptly adding that he only buys used less what my Coursera peers thought. this term,” Struck remarked. “A purple ones, “I go and I ask a lot of questions. And “There is a set of assumptions that dye—a very dark color coming from sea- the salesperson never says to me, ‘I think haven’t been explored,” Filreis adds. “One shells connected with the Phoenicians. you’re over-reading the situation.’ No, I am is that that the pedagogy is lecture. That’s And this purple color, a very rich and kicking those tires! I am looking under wrong! And the assumption also is that very expensive kind of dye, is often con- that hood! I am not going to drive that car to teach a MOOC you have to give up con- nected with extreme wealth.” away without over-reading! And no one tact with students. That’s wrong, too. Then To which one of his assistants added: thinks I’m over-reading. I’m a consumer! there’s an assumption that these are “Think about all the shells that would “When I fell in love with my wife-to-be,” automated—you put it in the can and push have to be mined for just a little bit of he continued, “I over-read the situation. the start button and the course will teach purple dye.” I really did. I didn’t skim the surface. I itself. That’s wrong also.” It is hard to imagine such a well-informed didn’t say, ‘Well this is not something I While I was taking Greek and Roman (if esoteric) question arising in a typical should interpret very carefully, I’m just Mythology, Rochelle Rabin C’74 was tak- undergraduate discussion section. And going to go with my feelings.’ No! That’s ing “Listening to World Music” from this was one of countless comments, in not a good idea! Penn music professor Carol Muller. She this course and others, that seemed to “And I want to put poetry up there with experienced the power of crowd-scale demonstrate the value of gigantic class used cars and marriage. I want poetry participation again and again. sizes—particularly when they encompass to be that important. I want you to take “When we studied Tuvan throat music, students of all ages and origins. it seriously! I want you to over-read it!” one of the issues was that while the Soviet For Al Filreis, the Kelly Professor of For the next two months, people did— Union ruled over Tuva, the Tuvans had to English and another web-wise faculty hitting the online discussion boards to suppress their indigenous customs,” she member, channeling this dynamic was the the tune of almost 100,000 posts and recalls. “There was a guy in the class who whole point of giving Coursera a whirl. nearly one million page views, numbers had grown up in that area, who was able “Is this phenomenon of the MOOC, which that continued to climb even after the to post about what it was like living there is really not all that different from what class had ended. For Filreis, the experi- under the Soviet Union!” we’ve had before, is it different from Open ence served as proof of concept—at least “The fact that people from all around the CourseWare?” he asked me in January. “It the concept that a professor willing to world were part of the class,” she adds, “was seems to me that we are in danger of creat- do “twice” the work of a traditional class as much a part of the learning process as ing this sexy, hyped-up mode that’s not in a MOOC’s first iteration, and “exactly anything that the professor brought in.” different from OCW. And if that’s the case, the same” amount in subsequent ones, My experience was different, perhaps then why don’t we just just put it online? can accomplish a lot. because I spent less time surfing the class We don’t need a platform for it.” “The MOOC has the chance to be a com- comment boards. Partly that was because He designed his Coursera course, munity of learners who work with each it was challenging enough for a working “Modern and Contemporary American other, and create a sense that they’re parent of small children just to get Poetry,” to answer that question. doing it together,” he says. “That’s the through the lectures—even at 1.25x speed, “I wanted to test the hypothesis that revolution—but it hasn’t been utilized. where I eventually found my groove. But these courses could actually be some- Partly because the people who really it also seemed that for every commenter what like humanities courses ought to pushed the MOOCs in the first place are who enriched Struck’s lecture about the be, in my opinion, which is, characterized from STEM disciplines [science, technol- cult of Apollo with a Thucydides citation, by interaction, questions being asked ogy, engineering, and math], particu- there were two more just casting around and answered, and discussion rather larly engineering, where you can write for fellow “neo-Pagan/Wiccans.” I pre- than lecture. So ModPo was intended not a quiz that appropriately tests compre- ferred to rely on Struck’s ability to curate to be teacher-centered teaching, but hension and ability.” a more reliably enlightening discussion learner-centered learning.” The mythology and poetry classes fea- in his screenside chats. It was filmed in the Kelly Writers House, tured computer-graded quizzes—Filreis That seems to have been an invigorat- at a table where Filreis either led a seminar calls his “silly”—but also peer-graded ing challenge for Struck. “Conversations

60 MARCH | APRIL 2013 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE in [traditional] class tend to be more tar- geted,” he says. “They tend to be funneled Penn’s Coursera Catalog down avenues down which a lecturer and SCIENCE AND MEDICINE ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS my TAs steer it. Which gives it a chance to go a little deeper, but it’s not as cre- Basic Behavioral Neurology Principles of Microeconomics ative on the students’ part. Roy Hamilton, Assistant Professor of Neurology Rebecca Stein, Senior Lecturer of Economics; “The discussion on the forums was Experimental Genome Science Director of the Microeconomic Principles Program much more multivalent,” he adds. “I John Hogenesch, Professor of Pharmacology An Introduction to Operations Management mean, there were hundreds of interesting John Isaac Murray, Assistant Professor of Genetics Christian Terwiesch, Andrew M. Heller threads to follow from people who were Fundamentals of Pharmacology Professor; Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics engaging with the material … The creativ- Emma Meagher, Associate Professor of Medicine ity of a huge crowd-sourced group was Vaccines Corporate Finance apparent—their ability to come up with Franklin Allen, Nippon Life Professor of Finance and Paul A. Offit, Maurice R. Hilleman Professor new ideas, and vote them up or down. Economics of Vaccinology and Professor of Pediatrics “When I started off,” Struck concludes, Gamification “I had a mixture of excitement at the new- Cardiac Arrest, Hypothermia, and Resuscitation Science Kevin Werbach, Associate Professor of Legal ness of it all, and a little bit of skepticism Studies and Business Ethics Benjamin Abella, Assistant Professor of as to whether it would be at all possible Emergency Medicine Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society in a forum like this to do the things I Karl T. Ulrich, Vice Dean of Innovation at really care about. And that skepticism, “Pay Attention!!”: ADHD Through the Lifespan Wharton; CIBC Professor of Entrepreneurship and that’s melting away. There’s enough that’s e-Commerce proving for me that, for those who follow Anthony L. Rostain, Professor of Psychiatry along with the course, we can get a lot of Neuroethics MATH substantive things done in this format.” Jonathan D. Moreno, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor Calculus: Single Variable That’s a matter of some consequence, Robert Ghrist, Andrea Mitchell Penn Integrates Health Policy and Affordable Care Act because Greek and Roman Mythology is Knowledge Professor in Mathematics and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Diane v.S. Levy and Robert now being offered for college credit—only Electrical/Systems Engineering not by Penn. M. Levy University Professor; Vice Provost for Global Initiatives HUMANITIES Rationing and Allocating Scarce Modern & Contemporary American Poetry THE GREAT UNBUNDLING Medical Resources Al Filreis, Kelly Professor of English; Faculty Ezekiel J. Emanuel Last October, Antioch University, in Los Director of the Kelly Writers House; Director of Angeles, announced that it would begin Networked Life the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing granting college credit through Coursera. Michael Kearns, Professor of Computer and Greek and Roman Mythology Information Science To pilot its program, it chose two courses Peter Struck, Associate Professor of Classical produced by Penn: Struck’s mythology Studies; Director of Benjamin Franklin Scholars class and Filreis’s poetry class. Listening to World Music When the University entered into part- Carol Muller, Professor of Music nership with Coursera, says Price, “We I was reporting this story Penn was work- made it clear that we were not in it to ing out at least one other licensing deal offer credit-bearing courses. Over the with another university.) long term that may change—if it’s abun- When I spoke with Daphne Koller in The idea of this happening on a large dantly clear to us that this is a vehicle January, it happened to be the day after scale seemed a little far-fetched to me for providing an educational experience Coursera got its “first revenue.” It came when my Coursera experience was lim- that is, in every respect, credit-worthy from individual students purchasing a ited to Greek and Roman Mythology— and Penn-worthy in that sense. At the premium option entailing identity-ver- especially when I ducked into one of moment it’s not clear that that’s the case, ification, which would enable them to Struck’s live lectures this spring. I had for a variety of reasons.” earn a special certificate upon success- enjoyed his online delivery. Grabbing an For Penn, those reasons include worries ful completion of a course. eight-minute lecture segment here and a about Internet-enabled identity fraud and Koller and Ng have a lot of ideas about 12-minute segment there was a fun way cheating, and uncertainty about just how how to make money. That’s one. Another is to break up my day. It was like LOLCat academically comparable a virtual class allowing job recruiters to purchase access slideshows, only without the brain-cell is to a traditional one. But other institu- to high-performing Coursera students. A death. But attending a full 50-minute tions may overcome such qualms more third is selling ads on the site. But perhaps performance in Stiteler Hall reminded quickly. (Or already have; the University most interesting—particularly as it pertains me of the signal luxury of a residential of Washington has offered credit for a to Penn—are licensing fees paid by institu- university, which is the chance to sink Coursera class in a “hybrid model” involv- tions who want to use Coursera materials, into deep communion with ideas and ing supplemental instructors, and while whether they award credit or not. people who enlarge them, free from all the

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2013 61 distractions that inevitably pinged my just increase the size of the class. It could “Unbundling is a good thing,” Koller says, inbox and buzzed my phone when I watched be revenue-neutral. I don’t think that’s “because it allows you to extract units from the same material online. The difference going to happen. But it could.” courses that are of value in and of them- between Struck in pixels and Struck in Karl Ulrich feels like it’s starting to selves, and provide them for students. person was the difference between TV and happen already. “At the same time,” she goes on, “I live theater. Surely it would be the same “Many of my own students at Penn have think there is a sense about courses—and for any truly good professor. taken MOOCs,” he notes. “Some have even more broadly about degrees—that the Then I started taking single-variable asked if I can give them independent whole is bigger than the sum of the parts calculus with Robert Ghrist. study credit at Penn for MOOCs taken … and students are better served, shall It is fair to say that Ghrist, the Andrea elsewhere. For their academic education, we say, by having access to larger units Mitchell University Professor, represents students will gravitate to the educational and being forced to take larger units.” Penn’s best hope for a Coursera block- mechanisms they find most attractive, Price has thought about this, too. buster. His lectures are built on nifty, and increasingly those mechanisms will “If you unbundle things like the course, cartoon-style animations that have a not be Penn classrooms. As an institution and then you start to imagine unbun- hand-drawn feel. More importantly, the we can take advantage of new modes of dling things like degree programs, et first week’s worth overcame long odds instruction, integrating them with the cetera, it starts to look as though it per- to make the concept of Taylor Series lucid other elements of the Penn experience, mits a radical reconceptualization of an to a scribbler who hasn’t encountered a which I am convinced students will con- undergraduate degree program,” he says. sigma sign, much less taken a derivative, tinue to value. Therefore, the emergence “How quickly that develops is unclear in in 20 years. of MOOCs and other novel educational my mind, and the exact trajectory that In February, Ghrist’s course was approved mechanisms represent as much of an it might follow is also unclear. for college credit by the American Council opportunity as a threat for us.” “I could imagine a world,” he muses, “in on Education, which oversees the granting That’s a heady notion. Yet it was only which they reconceptualize the system of “academic credit for formal courses and when I watched Ghrist’s seven-minute to be more like a tutorial system where a examinations taken outside traditional “bonus lecture” on how a geometric student comes in and, in close consulta- degree programs.” Calculus students who series and a binomial series could be tion with faculty, identifies a subject area pay $99 for Coursera’s Signature Track, applied to solve a particular problem in and is qualified for advanced study, mak- and pass an “online proctored exam” for electrostatics that I realized that Cours- ing use of a variety of unbundled educa- an additional $79, may now earn credit at era is on the cusp of doing something tional experiences, and then is taken one of some 2,000 universities and col- far more radical. through a research enterprise.” leges that consider (but are not required The nitty-gritty of that particular piece After thinking for a moment, Price to honor) ACE’s recommendations. of math is unimportant. Except, of remarks, “The credit unit was invented Rock thinks the excellence of Ghrist’s course, to any professor who needs to to serve particular purposes. It continues MOOC doesn’t detract from the value teach it—and realizes that Ghrist prob- to serve valuable purposes. I don’t see it of—and the premium students are willing ably does a better job in a shorter amount going out of use any time soon. On the to pay for—taking the class from him in of time. It was easy to imagine, say, a other hand, it is an invention.” person. But even if it turns out that his robotics professor licensing just that On the issue of other institutions Coursera class undercuts his tradition- tiny bit of Ghrist’s class—and then maybe awarding credit for Penn-produced al one, so what? grabbing another fragment from Coursera classes—or materials, if unbun- “The best kind of challenge that the Coursera’s electrical engineering class, dling is indeed the future—Rock is agnos- University has is figuring out how best and so on—and weaving them into a tic. He compares MOOCs to textbooks. to take advantage of face-to-face residen- course of his own design. “When somebody buys Brealey, Myers, tial instruction,” Rock says. “And if we When I mentioned this idea to Koller, and Allen’s Corporate Finance textbook can’t show that the single-variable calcu- she was way ahead of me. for their finance course,” he says, refer- lus course that we offer at the University “I think down the line you’re going to ring to a volume co-authored by Wharton’s of Pennsylvania is better by a significant have instructors who re-mix content Franklin Allen, “we don’t tell them what degree than the Coursera course that you that’s prepared by potentially one, two, kind of grades on the final exam are can take online for $99 or whatever, then or three different instructors—or more— required in order for them to give credit we shouldn’t be teaching single-variable and create trajectories that make sense,” for the course. That’s their business.” calculus. We should say take it some—take she said, sketching a future in which the Does he fear that Penn could be giving it before you get here. professor becomes a sort of DJ. “That is away the keys to its kingdom, the way “We don’t teach Algebra II anymore,” he what it’s about to be an instructor, I newspapers did, to their apparent finan- continues. “The curriculum changes over think. It’s a curation process.” cial doom, in the web’s early days? time … And if it turns out that the whole If so, Coursera’s pedagogic model, which No more than any professor who’s ever first year of college, all of these introduc- unbundles lectures into still smaller written a book. tory courses, is done more cheaply online, parts, may threaten the very idea of the “Paul Samuelson wrote the leading we could become a three-year university, course as the fundamental unit of a col- economics textbook that dominated the and it really wouldn’t disrupt us. We would lege education. market for 30 years, okay,” Rock says.

62 MARCH | APRIL 2013 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE “Samuelson taught at MIT. One could take able, and attractive to students, then it named Askhat Murzabayev turned to Samuelson on economics at any univer- will move ‘up market’ to the middle tier Coursera for a class that didn’t exist in his sity in America, including really inex- of institutions.” native Kazakhstan. As reported by NPR, he pensive universities. Do you think that It’s also easy to imagine how MOOCs took Stanford’s Machine Learning course, that reduced the attractiveness of MIT could imperil those institutions—and and parlayed his completion certificate into versus the competition, or do you think the students they serve. After all, using a job offer from Twitter, where he is now a it increased the attractiveness of MIT? MOOCs to amp up face-to-face instruc- product manager based in Almaty. My guess is it increased the attractive- tion is not the only option. A more tempt- As Koller told me in January, one of the ness … because it came with the guy.” ing one, in an era of cash-starved state biggest surprises for her and Ng has been Ulrich takes that logic a step further. universities and community colleges, “the extent to which the impact we felt we “Universities like Penn deliver at least might be to let MOOCs simply replace were having wasn’t just about providing four benefits to students,” he observes. all that good stuff. education to tens of thousands of students, “They confer alumni status, which carries That possibility can’t be discounted. but the direct and immediate impact that with it prestige and a signal of quality to Then again, neither can the fact that for you have on the lives of a few hundreds of employment markets. They create a social a lot people—particularly in the develop- students—in the sense that it completely network among individuals likely to be ing world—MOOCs aren’t a replacement transformed their lives to have access to powerful in the future. They provide an at all. They are the difference between no the educational experience.” engaging environment in which to make college and at least a taste of it. And even At Penn, Price echoes that sentiment. the transition into adulthood. And they a taste can be incredibly empowering. “My fondest hope is that this produces provide an academic education. While I was taking Greek and Roman an elevation in the quality of undergrad- “My sense is that for most students, the Mythology, so was an autistic 17-year-old uate education,” he says. “It stands to academic education is of substantially named Daniel Bergmann. Amazingly, con- improve the quality of secondary educa- less value than the other elements. sidering that he communicates by typing tion [as well], because it circulates col- “Elite universities are among the oldest letters one at a time, and relied on his legiate material, puts it in the hands of institutions in the world,” he adds. “They father’s physical ability to cut and paste secondary-school faculties and bright appear to be very resilient institutions, sentences as he crafted the first essays he secondary-school students.” rivaling religions for longevity. I believe had ever attempted, Bergmann was simul- Yet an anxiety tempers that optimism, a key reason for their success is that insti- taneously taking Filreis’s poetry class. and it is to the University’s credit that tutional prestige is very hard to replicate “I can’t yet sit still in a classroom so its chief academic officer pays heed to and takes decades to develop. For this ModPo was my first real course ever,” both things. reason, I am confident that the top hand- Bergmann wrote in a personal letter to “My biggest fear, frankly, is not a fear ful of universities in the world will con- Filreis. “During the course I had to keep connected to Penn at all,” he says, “It’s a fear tinue to be successful for decades.” pace with the class, which is unheard-of that thinking right now about higher educa- Ulrich isn’t alone in distinguishing in special ed … I started to dream about tion, and especially public higher education, between the outlook for the “top handful a life in an academic setting where I is driven by logics of efficiencies, concerns of universities” and the prospects of all might someday be of use to others as so about the spiraling costs of education, et the rest. Last year Sebastian Thrun, many people have been of use to me. The cetera. And that, too rapidly, these [MOOCs] founder of the MOOC platform Udacity, effect is that I feel dramatically less iso- will be seen as ways of bending the cost predicted in Wired magazine that 50 lated. Your notion that digital learning curve. And that efficiencies, real or imag- years from now there will only be 10 insti- need not be isolating is very right where ined, will become a device for withdrawal tutions of higher learning in the world. I am concerned. of support from high-quality education, and Extreme forecasts are always the most “The specifics of your course were no replacement of that experience with some- titillating, but there’s no getting around less transforming,” he went on. “My father thing that’s perhaps adequate, but not out- the enormous potential of MOOCs to dis- asked me the other day whether ModPo standing. I’m very, very concerned with the rupt the business of higher education. had had an effect on my openness and I misuse of these technologies in a way that “The big disruption will not be to the was astonished to realize it had. My whole is viewed as a cheap way out. elite universities themselves,” Ulrich intellectual life as I’ve started to emerge “There is no cheap way out of educating reckons. “Rather, I believe that the insti- from the misty darkness of autism has a population,” Price adds. “It is the best tutions whose primary benefit to stu- been an adventure in beauty housed in public investment that any society can pos- dents is education—such as community form and structure … Structured art was sibly make. And this country has benefited colleges—will need to adapt quickly to what I needed to develop my mind, but from critical moments in time where wise the availability of excellent content via you showed me a larger world. In special public leaders recognized that and made the web. ed they love to talk about the least restric- those investments, and they built fabulous “It’s easy to imagine how they might tive environment a child can function in institutions of higher learning.” do that, [by] employing instructors who and you have taught me to function in a Those institutions have new company. serve more as mentors and facilitators greatly expanded artistic one.” And the next critical moment in the his- than as lecturers,” he adds. And “if that Meanwhile, halfway around the world, a tory of higher education might just be approach proves highly effective, afford- 22-year-old computer-science student the present one.◆

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2013 63