“Students who demonstrate their mastery will be able to receive a certificate of completion for free.”
Re-read that last sentence again: “Students who demonstrate their mastery will be able to receive a certificate of completion for free.”
If you’re in the field of higher education it should send a cold chill down your spine because it is further evidence that higher education is about to be disrupted.
MIT is now offering a free online course in the field of electronics and circuitry. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, in the not-too-distant future, employers won’t care where you obtained your college degree; all they will want to know is whether you can demonstrate mastery in your given field of study.
My prediction is that a certificate of mastery from MITx (even if free) will mean more to many employers than a paper degree from hundreds of less regarded universities and colleges.
In fact, it’s quite possible that an employer will appreciate the initiative of the student who educated him or herself for free–and question the wisdom of the student who forked over $10,000 a year to obtain a worthless degree.
Interested in related posts by futurist Jack Uldrich on the future of higher education? Check out these older posts:
The Future of Higher Education: A Cloudy Forecast
Creating the University of the Future, Today
