Lessons from Wesleyan’s Foray into MOOCs

In a wide-ranging interview with University Business magazine, President Michael S. Roth discusses lessons learned from Wesleyan’s foray into online education this year–a charge he led, including teaching a Coursera class, “The Modern and the Postmodern.” Though it’s easy to be dazzled by the tens of thousands of students who enroll in an individual MOOC, Roth says ultimately “what I found exciting was the ability for a humanities course to reach a great variety of people of all ages and national cultures. The way we teach these things in a liberal arts context actually resonates with thousands of students. That demand for an American-style class in a variety of fields is extremely strong.”

Roth also discussed the growing appeal of liberal arts education in Asian countries; Wesleyan’s three-year option, and its plans to hold tuition increases to inflation.