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To the Point

Can Higher Education Be Democratized on the Internet?

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOC's, began last year when Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun put a class on line.

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By Warren Olney • May 12, 2014 • 1 min read

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOC's, began last year when Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun put a class on line. He quickly enrolled 160,000 students — in more than 190 countries. Now Harvard, Princeton and other prestigious schools are offering MOOC's that reach millions of students worldwide, leading to visions of broader access to higher education at vastly reduced cost. We hear what it's like to take a college course from a computer and what it's like to teach to a machine instead of a classroom. Will MOOC's count for college credit? Will they still be free? Will rich elites still dominate higher education?

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    Warren Olney

    former KCRW broadcaster

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    Anna Scott

    Former KCRW Housing and Homelessness Reporter

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    Evan George

    Director of Content, News

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    Sonya Geis

    Senior Managing Editor

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    Time Magazine

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    Jeremy Adelman

    Princeton University

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    Stanford University

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