Education: From blackboard to keyboard

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson & Chris Cook:

Higher education online courses are growing in popularity but their business model is uncertain

Your keystrokes will find you out. Students tempted to enlist outside help for their college tests risk disqualification if the pace and style with which they type their answers does not fit their unique "keystroke biometrics".

This novel method of verifying that students are doing their own work is being pioneered by Coursera, one of the digital education start-ups that is rattling ivory towers and intriguing investors with so-called "Moocs" - "massive open online courses".

Cheating in your essays is just one time-honoured practice in higher education that is being upended by technology. In the past year, Coursera has signed up 33 leading universities to offer more than 200 online courses to 2.2m users - and to do it for free.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 20, 2013 2:32 AM
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