Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Ed is reporting that the U.S. Department of Education is strongly considering financially supporting free online courses. The funding is meant to support community colleges, many of which have been struggling over the past few years. From the article:
According to the draft materials from the administration, the program would support the development of 20-25 “high quality” courses a year, with a mix of high school and community college courses. Initial preference would go to “career oriented” courses. The courses would be owned by the government and would be free for anyone to take. Courses would be selected competitively, through peer review, for support. And the courses would be “modular” or “object based” such that they would be “interoperable” and could be offered with a variety of technology platforms.
David Wiley provides additional commentary.
