Among all recent inventions that have to do with MOOCs, the Georgia Institute of Technology’s online master’s program in computer science may have the best chance of changing how much students pay for a traditional degree.
The program, which started last winter, pairs MOOC-like course videos and assessments with a support system of course assistants who work directly with students. The goal is to create a low-cost master’s degree that is nonetheless “just as rigorous” as the on-campus equivalent—producing graduates who are “just as good,” to quote one of the new program’s cheerleaders, President Obama. The price: less than $7,000 for the three-year program, a small fraction of the cost of the traditional program.
It’s too early yet for a graduating class. But researchers at Georgia Tech and Harvard University have studied the students who have enrolled in the program, in an effort to figure out “where the demand is coming from and what it’s substituting for educationally,” says Joshua S. Goodman, an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard.
By understanding what kinds of students are drawn to the new program, Mr. Goodman and his fellow researchers think they can begin to understand what competitors it might threaten.
Here is what they found out about those students:
How They Are Different
The enrollees are numerous. The online program this year got as many applications as Georgia Tech’s traditional program did during two recent semesters. But while the traditional program accepted only about 15 percent of its applicants, the online program accepted 50 percent, enrolling about 1,800 in its first year. That might not qualify as large in light of the 50,000-students-per-course figures often quoted in reference to MOOCs, but it does make the online program three times as large as the largest traditional master’s programs in computer science, according to the researchers.
They’re older (and they already have jobs). The people enrolling in the online program are 35 years old, on average, and are far more likely to report that they are working rather than studying full time. (The average age of the students in Georgia Tech’s traditional program is 24, with only half indicating that they are employed.) That should not surprise anyone who has even a passing familiarity with online education. Online programs have pitched themselves to adults who are tethered to work and family, and who want to earn degrees without rearranging their lives around a course schedule.
They’re from the United States. Online education is supposed to make geographic borders matter less. But this online master’s program has drawn 80 percent of its students from within the country. By contrast, in the traditional program, 75 percent of the students are foreign, mostly from India and China.
Most of them did not study computer science in college. In the traditional graduate program, 62 percent of students have completed an undergraduate major in computer science. That is true of only 40 percent of the online students. The percentage of undergraduate engineering majors, 27 percent, remained constant.
How They Are Similar
They’re good at school. Unlike San Jose State University’s MOOC-related pilot program, which tried and failed to help underperforming students, Georgia Tech’s online program appeals to students with a proven academic track record, specifically those who earned bachelor’s degrees with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher. (The university told The Chronicle last year that its first group of applicants averaged a 3.58 GPA—about the same as the students in the traditional program.) They seem to be doing well so far: Courses held last spring and summer saw pass rates of about 88 percent, according to the university.
They’re mostly men. The online program had a lower rate of female applicants than the traditional program did, but there were precious few in either pool: 14 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Among American applicants, the rates were similar: 13 percent and 16 percent.
Over all, the first enrollees in Georgia Tech’s MOOC-like master’s program fit the profile of students who are applying to online graduate programs at institutions across the country.
“It doesn’t look like this is the kind of program that’s going to increase access for poor students or people who are disadvantaged in other ways,” says Mr. Goodman, the public-policy professor.
Not that expanding access to underserved populations is necessarily Georgia Tech’s goal. The university is trying to offer a better value to students who are already qualified to attend a top graduate school. Mr. Goodman says he hopes next to find out if applicants to the online program are choosing from a range of options, or whether it’s Georgia Tech or nothing at all.
For Georgia Tech, the early data are encouraging enough. They suggest that it can offer an online computer-science master’s program without cannibalizing its more-expensive campus version.
