Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been pretty
good at attracting crowds, but personal interaction with the instructor is
difficult. Coursera is looking at providing one-on-one online discussions
between student and instructor.
“Down the road, we’ll probably go to a premium layer
that you could pay for that would give you live interaction with a professor by
video or something like that—a seminar within a MOOC,” CEO Rick Levin told Wired.
Levin compared the idea to Google Hangout, a feature that
allows videoconferencing from a computer or mobile device. Coursera is running
more than 800 MOOCs, so the scale would be much larger. At the same time, it
would be another way for the company to make money as students would be charged
to participate in the online seminars.
“We think higher-touch interaction will appeal to some
people,” Levin said. “It’s a way to get some money out of the lifelong-learner
population, as opposed to the career-builder.”
