Want to create an online video course that will be successful and make a ton of money?
The Synchronous Massive Online Class (SMOC) by two psychologists at the University of Texas - Austin may be it. It's an introductory class in psychology so anyone can participate and they are charging $550 per viewer. Unlike the better-known MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), you have to watch the class live.
"We're not business people, we're not entrepreneurs, but we know we have a first-rate class that works, and now the question is how do we go out and sell this mousetrap," said Prof. James Pennebaker, the chairman of the UT psychology department.
It hasn't worked yet. While it has about 1,000 UT undergraduates, fewer than 50 were from beyond the campus - but there is potential.
To grade the students, a quiz will be given at the beginning of every class and among the tools the tech team developed for the course is an algorithm to detect cheating by measuring how students answer the quizzes. Last semester, the professors flunked 5% of the pilot online class for cheating—a much higher rate than in an offline class.
Online Class Aims to Earn Millions by Douglas Belkin, Wall Street Journal
