For a long time, universities resisted offering online courses and when they did, they refused to give credit for them. Time does not stand still, however. When MIT introduced its pioneering OpenCourseWare project back in 2001, it offered only 50 free online courses. Within three years, it had expanded to 1,700 courses through a worldwide consortium of universities and over the years, has had over 125 million lifetime visitors.
In April 2012, Coursera, a California-based provider of online academic courses, added interactive video, and peer communities to the text courses offered by top-tier universities. Since then, it has enrolled more than seven million students in hundreds of free massive open online courses (MOOCs) from more than 100 partner universities in 20 countries.
Move out of the Classroom
The shift from formal classroom settings to flexible online situations comes in response to the need to offer available free education to more people. Sharing knowledge is the basis of all didactic approaches and the power of the internet affords the rapid and mostly free dissemination of information. Online courses provide ardent students from all over the world the opportunity to customize their education in the comfort of their own homes and do so at the pace they feel most suits their needs and personalities.
As evidence of the dramatic devolution from the physical to the virtual nature of instruction, witness the many high powered executives and scholastic figures who have recently assumed positions with educational portals. Richard C. Levin, who stepped down as president of Yale University last June, will assume his position as chief executive of Coursera next month. Mr. Levin has been an adviser to Coursera since January 2014 and has been experimenting with online education for years, launching a partnership with Stanford and Oxford in 2000 and introducing the Open Yale Courses in 2007 wherein dozens of classes taught by Yale professors were made available without any cost.
EdX
EdX, the nonprofit online learning initiative at Harvard and MIT, announced last March the appointment of Wendy Cebula as the company's president and chief operating officer. Cebula spent 13 years at Vistaprint, a leading online provider of professional marketing products and services to micro businesses and the home, where she most recently served as chief operating officer.
According to Ms. Cebula, "?Innovation in education shows no signs of slowing, and I'm excited to be a part of this movement"¦. that is literally changing the face of education for whole nations, businesses, universities and millions of learners around the world."
Education knows no international boundaries and online courses are as popular in Europe and Asia as they are in the United States. In fact, China is the second-biggest source of Coursera student enrollment after the U.S. and Mr. Levin, who has extensive experience in China, is already working on expanding Coursera's presence there.
MOOCs
However, it isn't only universities and other educational institutions that have jumped on the internet band wagon. MOOCs are now offered in almost every field of study and online trading courses are not being left behind. There is something to be said for financial sites, such as FX Academy, that may offer more of a comprehensive learning experience than any form of old-school teacher-student collaboration.
In fact, statistics have shown that the average student of online education is older than the post high school graduate. At Coursera, the majority of participants are over 30 with only 15% are enrolled in 4-year universities or colleges. When it comes to courses in finance and investing, the average age is even older. However, as younger folk see the benefit of online study, more and more are signing on to learn about trading before even opening a brokerage account. With time, financial modules and investing curricula will be as valued and esteemed as any other online learning system that provides skills for the real world.
As can be expected, MOOCs do not come without their critics. Professors worry that with fewer classes, high paying positions at top class universities will start to shrink and many will end up without a job. In addition, there is always the worry that unauthorized and non-regulated programs will start to pop up, adding confusion and lack of trustworthiness to the entire online learning industry.
With all that, online scholarship is moving along at a rapid clip and almost every field of study will eventually become available at the click of a key. Everyone will be able to access academic materials, intellectual discourse and professional training and MOOCs will take the lead in educational fortitude.
When it comes to learning about trading, online resources used to present limited opportunities, mostly in the form of articles – but this is no longer the case. Business and finance courses are rapidly growing in popularity, and are now offered by both online universities and independent organizations. If you're ready to learn about Forex trading in a more comprehensive way, there's never been a better time to get started.