A short presentation by Dr. John Ebersole (President, Excelsior College) during the webinar titled 'Why MOOCs matter?' held by Tata Interactive Systems on 19th July, 2013

1. MOOCs: Insights, Concerns
and Praise
Dr. John F. Ebersole
President
Excelsior College
Albany, NY
<jebersole@excelsior.edu>

2. Excelsior College
 Created by Regents of the State of New
York in 1971
 Specialize in degree completion
 Acceptance of transfer and non-collegiate
learning through validation

3. MOOCs & Excelsior
 No credit toward degree requirements
 Why?
- Few learning outcome assessments
- No use of psychometric assessment
instruments
- Weak student authentication & proctoring
- No exam/assessment security

4. Signs of Concern
 Breath taking attrition
(concern = instructional design)
 Little interest in credit
 Pearson/VUE & CSU/CAEL experience

5. Things MOOCs Do Well
#1: Continuing professional education
#2: Faculty “brand building”
#3: Institutional “brand building” (especially
outside U.S.)
#4: Program promotion
#5: R&D
#6: Degree completion (for some) (TBD)

6. Solving the Credit Problem
 Need for psychometrically valid
 Secure, third-party administration
 Security for assessment
 Need for size in exam item pool

7. Power & Potential of MOOCs
 Highly efficient
 Open access to knowledge
 Right “price” for many
 One-half of population of developing
countries under age 24

8. Summary
 Great promise
 Doing much well
 Work to be done
 Attend to credibility of MOOCs as a source
of learning

9. Questions?

10. Questions?