

Ask HN: Will MOOCs eventually disrupt below-average US grad schools? - trg2

I personally don&#x27;t think you can (or should!) replace the 4-year undergraduate experience, and I don&#x27;t think you can kill Ivy League schools. With that said, do you think MOOCs will ever become a viable alternative to below-average, overpriced US graduate schools?
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gautambay
Below-average and expensive masters degree programs will get disrupted sooner
than most people think. This is already happening (with coding bootcamps, for
instance).

Will MOOCs disrupt them? I'm not sure. But it will be some combination of
online content (e.g. MOOCs) + curriculum + mentorship + community. e.g. Check
out what Thinkful is doing.

Undergraduate programs are safe for the near future (but not forever) because
employers are conditioned to value college diplomas. I checked with 30+ hiring
managers and recruiters in the Valley last fall, and there was almost no
willingness to hire someone who didn't go to college. I predict this will
change in 15-20 years, and going to college will become a choice, not a
necessity for many jobs.

Ashwath Damodaran (NYU prof) has written an interesting post about it here:
[http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2014/01/if-moocs-fail-
is...](http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2014/01/if-moocs-fail-is-online-
education-done.html)

I spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff (I'm working on an education
startup, details in bio). I'd be delighted to chat more. My hacker news ID is
also my gmail ID.

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_delirium
If you mean 2-year, 100%-course-based masters degrees (i.e. the style that
doesn't include research or a masters thesis), I think probably yes. If you
mean the classic masters degree (some courses, some research, capped with a
thesis), I think probably no. If you mean PhD-level research-oriented
education, I think probably also no.

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philiphodgen
As an employer I like the horrible attrition rates that MOOCs report. Anyone
who completes a course in a MOOC has demonstrated a character trait that I
value -- self-direction.

This is, as you say, not enough to displace Ivy League degrees (though I see
them as indifferent predictors of success, coupled with high correlation to an
entitlement mentality). (Disclaimer: my daughter is looking at Ivy League
schools this week and in particular had a fine time touring Dartmouth's
engineering department on Friday).

But for the right situations the MOOC schools will triumph. Fine by me if 80%
of MOOC students drop out. That last 20% is golden.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
I believe the 'horrible attrition rate' is ignorable. The true measure is cost
per pupil that completes the course. Does that beat the current system?

See, all those dropouts have negligible marginal cost. They signed up because
there was no significant hurdle to signing up (cost, commitment, stigma). They
may not have even been 'students' i.e. a person who commits a hefty portion of
their life to study.

Many quit because they were just trying it out, or curious, or any number of
things. It doesn't matter. It was free to start; its free to stop.

A MOOC is valuable if it educates pretty much anybody at all, given the
extremely low cost.

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thejteam
The people going to the below-average, overpriced graduate schools are usually
the ones who are looking for the check in the box for the advanced degree so
the can get promoted. MOOCs will only replace these schools when employers
look at them as equals.

