Emory joins other top colleges to offer online courses

Duke University

Emory University

Northwestern University

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of Notre Dame

University of Rochester

Vanderbilt University

Wake Forest University

Washington University in St. Louis

Source: Semester Online

Undergraduate college students just got another opportunity to take courses from top-tier schools.

Emory University and nine other elite colleges announced a new consortium Thursday that allows students to take online courses offered by the schools and receive credit for the work. Semester Online, which will debut next fall, will cover the same information and be taught by the same faculty found at the brick-and-mortar colleges. The cost will be similar, too, at $1,400 per credit hour, with the price for a typical class running from $4,200 to $5,600.

Students enrolled as an undergraduate anywhere will be eligible, said Chip Paucek, the CEO of 2U, the company that developed the virtual platform to make the classes possible. Still, Emory and the other colleges will set admissions criteria for each course.

This partnership is the latest example of what has been a busy year as the nation’s leading colleges embrace technology at an accelerated rate. Online learning is more than 15 years old, and while many colleges have endorsed this method, it’s only recently that the country’s top colleges have done the same, said Ray Schroeder, the director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at the University of Illinois.

“This is an interesting effort of collaboration,” Schroeder said. “Historically, higher education has been very slow to respond to change until now. I wouldn’t rule out other creative responses by other colleges.”

Emory, Duke University and the other colleges in the consortium also will offer massive open online courses (MOOCs). Those courses are free and open to anyone regardless of their education level but do not translate into credits that count toward a degree.

Semester Online, however, says it is the first example of top colleges offering online, for-credit courses to undergraduates not enrolled at their schools.

“This is a new day for higher education,” said Lynn Zimmerman, Emory’s senior vice provost. “This is not a substitute for residential education. This is about using technology to give students a richer experience.”

While classes could have between 100 and 300 students, some sections will be limited to 15 to 20 students to offer a more traditional classroom environment. Classes will include recorded lectures, online readings and real-time interaction with the professor and other students.

Schroeder said the teaching methods are grounded in research over what makes effective online learning.

College leaders said they need to experiment with different online formats and learn from each. That is why Emory and others are involved in Semester Online and MOOCs.

“We don’t yet know what works better and what works worse,” said Peter Lange, the provost of Duke University.

Observers expected top colleges to collaborate to offer more online courses. A recent report from Moody’s Investors Service predicted that as more elite colleges work together, it could harm smaller schools and for-profit colleges “that may be left out of emerging high-reputation online networks.”

Schroeder expects Semester Online to add more competition and uncertainty to the marketplace. Music and newspaper industries have gone through similar technology-fueled changes, he said.

“It’s messy in higher education,” he said, “and I think we’ll see further changes.”

Zimmerman said the consortium was not designed to compete, but rather to expose students to rigorous courses and professors at peer colleges.

“I hope people will view this as an opportunity and not as a threat,” she said.

It’s too soon to say how many students will participate, but organizers expect thousands to participate next fall.

The program would benefit students who are off-campus for work, internships or research projects and want to continue taking courses, Zimmerman said. Officials are still determining what impact it would have on Emory students on campus. Students will not be able to earn a complete degree through the program.

Emory has been working on this project for more than a year, and many details are still being finalized, Zimmerman said.

“This is exciting, but there is still la lot of uncertainty,” she said. “We’re all looking for new ideas and approaches.”