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Degrees of separation: Should you sign up for an elite varsity’s online course?
Who wouldn’t want Harvard, Cornell or MIT on their CV? But the courses are expensive; fees start at ₹1 lakh. Are they worth the time, money and trouble?
Who wouldn’t want Harvard, Cornell or MIT on their CV? As more international universities offer online certificate courses – from Digital Marketing and Economics for Managers to Artificial Intelligence – those hallowed hallways are at least virtually within reach. Sure, they’re expensive (course fees alone start from ₹1 lakh). Is it worth the time, money and trouble?
Online courses offer students flexibility in completing a course – great for anyone juggling studies and work. Shubhika Bilgrami, 33, a knowledge professional at a consulting firm in the Middle East, took the six-week Beyond Smart Cities course by MIT in 2021. She found it intense but manageable. “There was one module every week,” says Bilgrami, whose company sponsored the ₹1.18 lakh course. “Each module consisted of written materials and videos. We had to go through them and answer questions and case studies. This was then graded by the university. It took eight to 10 hours per week, and could be paced as we wanted.”
Some online courses can help prepare for conventional courses later. Aleeya Dasgupta, 33, a development professional, is currently enrolled at MIT for a programme that charges between $250 and $1,000 per course. “I’ve finished one class (Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations) and I’ve enrolled in two (Political Economy and Economic Development, Data Analysis for Social Scientists). The classes are part of an online ‘micromasters’ in Data, Economics, and Development Policy, but can be taken independently,” she says. “Once I complete the programme, I can finish the residential Data, Economics, and Development Policy Masters at MIT faster, since the online classes count towards credit.”
It isn’t entirely open-ended. Dasgupta attends online classes and meets the strict deadlines for the weekly assignments. She says it helps that she’s excited by the material and was motivated to learn from the beginning. “The discipline can be a struggle,” she admits, “but I think that’s true for a lot of graduate level study – you’re in charge of how much you choose to engage.”
Preyash Shah, founder of LilacBuds, a Mumbai-based educational consulting company says the kind of course one chooses to pursue remotely makes a difference. “An online certificate from a top-tier institution can add weight for people starting their careers. Professionals who want to take the next step, and need a bit of an edge, can benefit from them.” But he doesn’t recommend signing up for a full-fledged degree online. “The course is more intensive,” he says. Online and remote options work for courses that upskill and showcase one’s intent and specialisation to an employer.
They’re not designed for student interactions, class discussions, honing intellectual arguments in real time, and having long chats with a professor. Students miss out on crucial networks when they are off campus. There are no fraternities to join, no college rivalries to fire up, no cool senior or prof to run into in the hallway.
Bilgrami says there are online forums for students, and some have made connections on LinkedIn. “But apart from the 60 students in my course, we were not given access to any other alumni network,” she says. Dasgupta meanwhile says, “I don’t really participate in the discussion forum. I would love to have access to the student network, but it’s too tedious to cultivate in this format.”
And not all students find online courses useful. Rishi Ahuja, 30, a private-equity lawyer, left an online course in negotiation from Yale midway in 2019. “I thought it would help me because negotiation is a huge part of my job and it would look great on my resume. But it was too general,” he says. “I realised that I wasn’t getting much out of it that I couldn’t get from YouTube.
Dasgupta and Bilgrami have had better experiences. “My classes were in an interview format, where the centre leader spoke to experts,” says Bilgrami. “Plus, there were interactive proprietary videos that couldn’t be shared.” Dasgupta adds that in terms of content, depth of information, specificity of application and credibility, her course material was many notches above standard YouTube fare.
Both professionals don’t regret completing their courses. “MIT is doing good work in that space via their MIT Senseable City lab, so I got access to their ongoing research and prototypes,” Bilgrami says. “What I liked the most was the mix of materials: text, videos, interactive videos, pictorials, chats. The only thing that was lacking were online face-to-face classes.”
Dasgupta has found it t be enriching too. “The best bit is the access to current knowledge. The worst part is doing it in isolation.”
