TechCrunch indicates that a large proportion of the profs who offer a MOOC do not feel the experience should be worth college credit. This is an interesting, but not surprising position for those who offer content to take. I think that learning for credit comes with different expectations than what I have sometimes called “hobby learning”. My commitment to a hobby can be very intense, but based on my own interests and priorities. I invest time and money in the parts of a topic that interest me and the skills I acquire may not meet someone else’s expectations for being skilled. This is fine until we get to the issue of whether what I have learned deserves credit.
The MOOCs I have explored are topical and mostly not main stream – they are well suited to what I call hobby learning. There are mechanisms available to acquire credit in many typical introductory content areas. CLEP exams are available for many traditional content areas. My institution honors CLEP exams. I am surprised more students do not take an iTunes U course and then attempt to pass a CLEP exam.