What are independent learners and innovative teachers doing now that deserves support, recognition, and scaling up?

There is precedent for new types of credentials to supplement or even supplant traditional signals in the eyes of those looking to hire.

While I wish I had studied more about finance, management and marketing before I started my own business many years ago, I don't regret having dedicated my college years to "less practical" subjects such as chemistry, history and literature.

Unlike a scientific experiment that can keep controls and treated samples isolated in separate test tubes, the MOOC experiment is playing out in one of the messier corners of the already messy real world: academia.

The Georgia Institute of Technology announced Tuesday that it will offer an online master's degree for less than $7,000 through a partnership with Uda...

If people are willing to pay $2,000 or more per credit when a course is taken within a degree-granting institution, but less than 5 percent of that for the same course stands alone, that's a pretty strong indication of where the value in the college course truly lies.

I'm now close to a month into the sophomore year of my Degree of Freedom One Year BA project (which will run from April through June), and wanted to give readers a peek at what's on the docket for the next few months.

One of the hot topics regarding MOOCs and other forms of online learning (massive or small, free or otherwise) is whether or not taking such courses should count for actual high school or college credit.

There is no reward for taking a MOOC beyond the learning you achieve. Which means that arranging your time to not learn everything you can from them would be the most ridiculous time waster of all.

Indeed, Coursera, another commercial entity, now claims well over a million students and more than 30 institutional partners, many among the so-called elite. And not to be left behind, two existing giants, Google and Pearson, have entered the arena. So what to make of MOOCs?

Can students really be taught critical thinking, civics, and citizenship skills in a standardized format that values conformity? Will relying on MOOCs and automation in the long-term turn professors into "delivery managers" and students into automatons and passive consumers rather than citizens?

While a bulk of their classes would probably be considered technical training or self-help in nature, they do include some interesting humanities and social sciences items in their library.

The bull sessions and hallway discussions of the physical college environment are replaced by online forums, social networks and video conferencing in the MOOC environment. And like reading, discussion largely boils down to a numbers game.

This week, I introduced people to the nuts and bolts behind Degree of Freedom - my one-year effort to learn everything I would from being enrolled in a liberal arts BA program in just twelve months using only free educational resources.

I decided to go back to school this year, although rather than travel the well-trodden path of specialization by obtaining a graduate degree, I decided it was time to re-do my undergraduate BA, this time taking all the courses I never got around to the first time around.

The problem isn't too many Bachelor's diplomas or too many online courses. The problem is the current system's failure to develop essential competences in a cost-effective way.

Whether you are focused on the liberal arts in school and are looking for some real[er] world skills, or are a recent grad thinking of starting your own company, here are some courses that any aspiring entrepreneur should check out.

Currently it seems as if the general public, along with many of our national leaders, believe that what will fix our country are "more children with more degrees." In this belief, if we really are hoping this will fix our country, we are instead doomed.

Millions of people signed up to take a free class from the top research universities and Ivy League schools in 2012, but some higher education leaders...