One Reason to Offer Free Online Courses: Alumni Engagement - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Conversations about the atomic bomb can go only so far among a classroom of 20-somethings. It’s hard for today’s students to imagine living in 1945, experiencing a world war, or, for most, serving in the military. But bring alumni—with many more years of experience to share—into the equation, and class discussions can get a lot more interesting. That’s what Karen Harpp is doing in her Colgate University course 'The Advent of the Atomic Bomb'" Next semester she will offer the course for a second time as a MOOC of sorts for Colgate alumni. It is not, strictly speaking, a "massive open online course" because it is not open to the public—only to alumni and others who make special requests to join. Colgate calls its class, and others like it, 'fusion' courses. Kevin Lynch, the university’s chief information officer, said they had been given the name because they are in-person courses for Colgate students with an additional online component that brings in alumni ..."