Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Is Alison The Answer To The World's Education Needs?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Forbes is reporting Alison's oft-debunked claim to have created the world's first MOOCs. It's hard to read this article as anything other than an advertorial (again, I caution people against trusting the traditional media where commercial interests are concerned). I have written to Allison in the past about this but there appears to be no legislation or constraint requiring that they represent themselves honestly. As for the question in the headline, the answer is "no" - free and open online self-study courses have been around since the 1990s (my own on logical fallacies course was published in 1995) and if they were the answer to to the world's education needs they would have solved the problem sometime in the last 22 years. Ditto the self-serve certificate you have to pay them for.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 13, 2024 2:42 p.m.

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