As the costs of graduate education skyrocket and students demand cheaper, more-convenient ways of learning, colleges and universities are increasingly experimenting with so-called “stackable degrees.” Think Lego blocks of college education, letting students start with a MOOC, then add a few more MOOCs to get an online certificate, then add yet more courses to get a traditional master’s degree.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced such a degree on Wednesday. Starting this fall, students can enroll in an online master’s degree in data science, offered in conjunction with Coursera, the for-profit platform that produces massive open online courses.
The cost of the full master’s program is $19,200, dramatically less than the price of an on-campus master’s program.
“This is a future” of graduate education, says John C. Hart, a professor of computer science and executive associate dean of graduate studies at Illinois. “But we are not abandoning our on-campus courses.”
Since the university runs a top program in computer science, it gets far more applicants than it can accept. Over the last several years, Mr. Hart said officials have been looking at how to scale the program to accommodate students from around the world.
The university established the program building on MOOC sequences it had already created on the Coursera platform that lead to certificates in two computer-science specializations: data mining and cloud computing. Students who have already received those certificates will have a head start toward finishing the new degree, since those certificates make up two of the four distinct areas of study. The others are data visualization and machine learning. If admitted into the program, students could trade in those certificates for course credit.
The program is accepting applications as of today, and it will begin classes for its first group of students — just 150 of them at first — at the end of the summer.
Eliminating Barriers
Several months ago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a similar pilot program known as a “micro-master’s degree” that works in conjunction with edX, a nonprofit website that offers MOOCs.
Anant Agarwal is the chief executive officer of edX and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He describes the pilot as “a path” to a full master’s degree in supply chain management. This shortcut allows students to cut their time on campus to only a semester.
Robert M. Augustine, senior vice president of the Council of Graduate Schools, said his organization has seen a rise in member institutions creating new pathways for degree completion. For decades, he said, colleges have been experimenting with new ways to drive down barriers to entry for students and scale popular programs to a global audience. One of those ways has been through certificate programs that could be transferred for credit toward a master’s degree at certain institutions. “Our students have many pressures in their lives and we want to provide them with opportunities,” Mr. Augustine said.
He added that using MOOCs as an entry to graduate school could catch on among colleges and universities. “If the work force sees it as a positive, and if students get what they are seeking, I think we will see this as a potential trend,” he said. “But all of those things must be evaluated.”
The fact that these programs allow students to test the waters is a good way for people to consider whether just the certificate or the full master’s program best aligns with their career goals. Certificates in specialized disciplines started to popularize around the 2000s, said Mr. Augustine, adding that many of them are delivered online. “Like anything that is new, it can take some time for it to evolve.”
This could also be a way for students to get a foot in the door to enter prestigious programs.
At MIT, students who do well in the micro-master’s program are given preference to get into the full master’s. Upon admittance, their credits from the micro-master’s count as half of the overall necessary courses required for the full degree. For $1,000, students get between three to six courses that make up the micro-masters.
Mr. Agarwal said edX has partnerships with other universities that are expected to announce similar programs in the fall. He sees the micro-master’s as a career focused minor. There is a strong connection with employers that are interested in hiring students from that program, he added.
The MIT program has no admissions process. “If you can cut it, you can get a micro-masters,” Mr. Agarwal said. “Exams in the course are a self-fulfilling admissions process.” And students don’t pay a dime unless they want the credential.
Mr. Hart said Illinois may add stackable degrees in other subject areas in the future.
Jeffrey R. Young contributed to this report.
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