UMUC to offer credit for six massive open online courses

The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is one of six colleges nationwide participating in a study tracking how well students perform and learn in massive open online courses, better known as MOOCs.
According to the Baltimore Sun:

UMUC has agreed to grant credit for six courses that closely match its own introductory offerings. But to get the credit, students will have to prove that they know the material. That can be done one of two ways: by taking a paid version of the course for $150 or less, which includes proctored exams, or by going through a rigorous “prior learning assessment” process at UMUC, which measures competency in a topic. No students have signed on yet.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the American Council on Education are responsible for developing this study and several other studies on how effective MOOCs are as a substitute for what’s considered a conventional college education: enrolling at a four-year university, paying tuition and room and board, and attending in-person classes with professors.
Four of the MOOCs at UMUC, the nation’s largest public university, are offered via Coursera, which has been used by the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland. The other two are offered by Udacity, a provider whose partnership with San Jose State University in California was paused briefly this summer after disappointing pass rates (below 50 percent) were posted for three for-credit courses.
Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun.