[non-entity]

One interesting thing I've noticed in a handful of the MOOC degrees (only a few of them at the moment offer this) is alternative pathways. I've seen masters degrees offer pathways for literally anyone, even with no prior education to be admitted into them and acquire a masters degree.

On one hand, I'm all for democratizing education, and have taken some courses from said programs individually (typically the offer a "preview") and from what I've seenb hey aren't something anyone without prior subjects knowledge can just fake themselves through.

On the other hand, a lot of the advertising from the schools themselves read like something from a for-profit and I wonder whether programs like these will weaken the reputation of the degrees or even that of the schools themselves. Paraphrasing something I've read on here before, sometimes, the degree is more about signalling than education.