Alternative Credentials

Growth in adult students' interest in online education is stagnating, report finds, and colleges will have to do more to stand out online.

Already the largest provider of massive open online courses, Coursera doubles its list of university partners. Just how broad will the company's emerging MOOC empire become?

The Gates Foundation is ponying up to learn if MOOCs could work for remedial students, a departure from the current slate of MOOCs. Developmental education experts say the idea could work, but others remain skeptical.

Before these massive online courses truly transform higher education, they need to focus on some key teaching issues, writes Gary S. May.

Universities are going to have difficulty if they continue to claim the content of the new courses is of the same caliber as traditional courses, and yet decline to award full credit, writes David Touve.

Euphoria about massive online courses aside, they aren't the answer to improving access to higher education for low-income students, writes Ryan Craig.