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Annette Totten, Oregon Health & Science University assistant research professor, is taking an eight-week Health Policy course from the bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel online. Mail Tribune / Jamie LuschJamie Lusch

July 29, 2012

Without leaving Ashland and her post as an assistant research professor at Oregon Health & Science University, Annette Totten is taking an eight-week Health Policy course from prestigious bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel and it's free.

She's doing it by "sitting" in a class of 40,000 students and streaming the course online via Coursera, a new animal on the stage of higher learning that offers 111 courses, most taught by authors and professors from tier-one research universities.

Every Monday, the new lecture for the week is posted, along with homework and test questions, which pop up onscreen and pause the lecture, forcing students to research and write their answers before proceeding, says Totten.

Drawbacks of the system are the lack of college credit though credit is starting to be offered at the University of Washington and huge class size, which forms an obstacle to authenticating who is doing the coursework and also makes it hard to grade individual students, says Hart Wilson, distance education support specialist for Southern Oregon University.

"The difference between MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) and the online courses offered here is the question of scale," says Wilson. "MOOC sounds like most of the interaction is between students, not with the professor. Our online courses have 20 to 30 students and a great deal more quality interaction."

While MOOC classes are scattered across the whole country, interaction does happen, says Totten, with five fellow students evaluating short essay responses, 200 to 300 words each, of any one student, checking off main points that should be there.

MOOC, sometimes called "Mob Open Online Courses," welcomes anyone of any age, student or not, with or without credentials, and has the advantage of connecting students with the most accomplished, creative and credible figures in their field.

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Online courses open another window to education