Crash Course in Diplomacy: U.S. Offers Free College for the World - Melissa Rayworth, TakePart

A lone student in Singapore sits at a computer, carefully taking notes during a lecture about engineering. Another student does the same across the world in a house in Brazil, and another is listening to the same lecture in an apartment in Australia. The upside is obvious: Lectures from brilliant professors are available to everyone—and these are not one-off TED talks or videos of old lectures. They are full, ongoing courses that really teach something. Until now, the glaring downside has been that these students lack anything close to the communication with professors or teaching assistants that "traditional" online learning (yes, it's now been around long enough for us to use that term) offers. Many of them also lack the chat-room interaction with other students that online courses are known for. But the State Department is expanding its program to offer MOOC access and group support to a growing number of international students. http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/01/23/free-college-world