$50 For-Credit MOOC Goes Bust — for Now

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 06/20/13

A school-vendor partnership intended to test a new twist on the MOOC went belly-up a day after it was announced. On June 18, Tiffin University, a 7,000-student institution in Tiffin, OH, and Altius Education, which describes itself as "part university, part technology company," said it would be teaming up to deliver "Foundations of Success," a $50 credit-bearing course starting July 1. A day later, the two organizations announced that the deal was off "due to concerns over accreditation."

Tiffin administrators declined to provide further information.

Tiffin's programs are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC/NCA).

The course is already offered through Ivy Bridge College, Tiffin's associate program that allows students to attend in person or online and transfer their earned credits to four-year schools with transfer agreements. However, the standard tuition per credit at Tiffin, $690, is considerably more than the massive open online courses fee was set at.

"We apologize to those who were interested in the course and for any inconvenience our delay of this offering has caused," said Altius CEO, Paul Freedman. He added that the partnership would "continue to work through the challenges."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • white clouds in the sky overlaid with glowing network nodes, circuits, and AI symbols

    AWS, Microsoft, Google, Others Make DeepSeek-R1 AI Model Available on Their Platforms

    Leading cloud service providers are now making the open source DeepSeek-R1 reasoning model available on their platforms, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

  • illustration with geometric shapes, digital circuitry, and subtle icons of an open book, graduation cap, and lightbulb

    University of Michigan Launches Agentic AI Virtual Teaching Assistant

    At the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, a new Virtual Teaching Assistant pilot program is utilizing agentic AI to provide students with 24/7 access to support and self-directed learning.

  • robot waving

    Copilot Updates Aim to Make AI More Personal

    Microsoft has unveiled a range of updates to its Copilot platform, marking a new phase in its effort to deliver what it calls a "true AI companion" that adapts to individual users' needs, preferences and routines.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.