Free Tests!

There is a lot of debate on the value of MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses. Insiehighered.com reports that some enterprising students have found them beneficial for studying, particularly for practice tests. One element of student success we always see is that you cannot keep an A student down. They will find the best way for them to look best.

 In my UNIV course, the course freshman are forced to take (student perspective) I always tell students to take advantage of these free courses in many different ways. One of which is to take the course online before they take the course at UTB. This way they can prepare themselves with what to expect, gain more knowledge and save their bad grades for courses that don't count. MOOCs are also valuable to have students explore to learn if the major their enterprising Uncle whispers advice to them, "Plastics, go plastics" is really the career for them.

I am always amazed at how many students think that astronomy would be fun. About two weeks into the semester I can pick those students out on the phone by the tears, hicuping "Math, did not hic know  hic there was sob math in astronomy".  If students take a MOOC before they register for a course, things like mathematics in astronomy won't be a shock.