(From Brookings.edu):

By Stuart M. Butler

In late April Arizona State University (ASU), in partnership with edX – the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provider launched in 2012 by Harvard and MIT – announced it will offer MOOCs for credit this Fall. The cost for each course will be no more than $200 per credit hour or less than half the amount ASU charges for its regular online or in-person courses. If a student is not concerned about getting credit, the courses, like most MOOCs, will be free.

Called the Global Freshman Academy, this is another important step in the revolution that is engulfing higher education. Recently Google and MOOC pioneer Coursera announced “microdegrees”, a set of online courses and a hands-on project that will essentially be the core of a low-cost degree major that will be accepted by top employers. Now ASU and edX is aiming at the package of general course requirements, enabling students to assemble an accredited set of mainly first-year classes to use at ASU or to gain credits that they can transfer to another college or university.  CONTINUE READING HERE