I was feeling rather masochistic this morning and decided to read the “Terms of Service” of Coursera and Udacity. Much of it reads like the usual EULA, but I was stunned by one issue:
[T]he following are types of uses that Udacity expressly defines as falling outside of the definition of “non-commercial”: … (e) the use of Educational Content by a college, university, school, or other educational institution for instruction where tuition is charged.
You may not take any Online Course offered by Coursera … as part of any tuition-based … program for any college, university, or other academic institution without the express written permission from Coursera.
This seems to forbid the use of a MOOC in a “flipped classroom,” where frontal lectures are replaced by listening to the recorded lectures, and class time is devoted to discussion and problem solving (perhaps of the homework problems posed within the MOOC). Many people consider the flipped classroom to be an effective use of MOOCs, so it is amazing that both companies are putting up obstacles.
At least with Coursera, all the students can write them a letter asking for permission :-).
