Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are being touted as the future of secondary education, and many proponents argue that the MOOC model may solve the U.S. shortage of technical workers. Skeptics, however, question the quality of the training provided by such online education courses. 

In 2016, a group of students will receive master's degrees in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology. These students will pay $7,000 for the degree - about one-sixth of the traditional cost - and may never set foot on campus. Thanks to an agreement between Georgia Tech, AT&T, and Udacity, a venture-capital funded online education startup, students will learn virtually via a "massive open online course," or MOOC.

Online education is not new, of course. About one-third of students today take at least one online course, but the MOOC model is different, and many believe it could revolutionize higher education, particularly for students studying STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.

Last month, Stanford University announced it will team with edX, a nonprofit open-source MOOC platform created by MIT and Harvard to offer free online college courses. edX hosts MOOCs from about a dozen schools, including Georgetown University, the latest partner to sign on. While these free courses will not lead to degrees, attendees will receive certificates of completion.

There are several factors driving the growth and penetration of the MOOC model. The first is the need to address the shortage of STEM workers in the U.S. The second is the prohibitive costs of obtaining a college degree via traditional methods. Finally, there is the goal of expanding access to STEM education to students across the world.

At the recent American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Forum on Science and Technology Policy in Washington, D.C., edX president Anant Agarwal said MOOCs are changing education to fit an evolving world.

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