Updated: Feb. 18, 2014 at 10:54 a.m.
When colleges first started offering free online courses for thousands of people two years ago, pundits and college administrators around the country heralded them as opportunities for the low-income and under-educated.
Well, it hasn’t quite turned out that way. An overwhelming majority of people who enroll in massive open online courses already have college degrees, according to a November study in the journal Nature.
Now, universities are beginning to see that MOOCs still have benefits, even if they are not quite as altruistic. Harvard University announced last week that it would offer exclusive free online courses for its own alumni, giving graduates chances to connect in small groups and get face-time with real professors.
GW – just starting its own foray into free online courses and intensely trying to enhance alumni connections – should soon follow suit.
Giving alumni exclusive access to enriching academic experiences is just the kind of program that can help the University raise its 9 percent alumni giving rate – a low number that administrators need to raise if the school has a chance to reach its likely $1 billion campaign goal.
Graduates’ reluctance to give back is a problem that GW needs to solve – and with two expensive building projects on the line and a reliance on debt, it needs to be solved quickly.
GW is just beginning its own experiments in the world of online education. The University will offer the first ever MOOC on the Federal Reserve next fall, the first major initiative led by Paul Schiff Berman as vice provost for online education and academic innovation.
Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Mike Morsberger said in an email that alumni “will be welcome to participate in the MOOCs GW offers.” But parts of this course will draw from former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s course in the GW School of Business two years ago – video re-broadcasts that will not help alumni engagement.
Provost Steven Lerman has said that online courses for the masses would be an ideal branding opportunity. The University can show off faculty’s expertise in the world of economics, finance and political science – emphasizing to prospective students that an education here will pay off.
But this does not unlock the full potential of MOOCs. Instead of massive and open, the University can offer key benefits to the alumni it is trying to please.
The University does already offer students course audits, travel opportunities and professional webinars, but these do not give alumni the full experience of campus life again. The webinars, for instance, are typically given by fellow alumni.
Instead, alumni still yearn for the “intellectual life of the university,” Robert A. Lue, director of the online program HarvardX, told that school’s student newspaper The Crimson. That means access to professors and the chance to reconnect with peers in person.
By expanding its arsenal of online courses and gearing them toward graduates, the school could create a virtual network that would benefit alumni and tie them back into academics at GW. Hopefully, this would demonstrate the school’s academic advancements and innovative classes to alumni, inspiring them to donate towards the University’s most ambitious projects.
The program would also improve GW’s online learning by providing an incubator to try out new courses and methods.
GW is in dire straits for donations. But with alumni who have faced one of the highest tuition rates in the country and still look back to see their school struggling to raise money and pay off debt, the University is going to have to innovate its way to a more devoted base.
Sarah Blugis, a sophomore majoring in political communication, is a Hatchet columnist.
