Why Free Online Classes Are Still the Future of Education | WIRED ... team of researchers out of MIT, Harvard, and China’s Tsinghua University—all schools that offer MOOCs— released a study showing that students who attended a MIT physics class online learned as effectively as students who took the class in person. What’s more, the results were the same , regardless of how well the online students scored on a pre-test before taking the class. ... Big MOOC on Campus In addition to connecting people to education online, MOOCs are also starting to find their way on campus, as universities like MIT and others are adopting what’s known as a blended learning model. In a blended learning environment, students receive most of their lectures by video so they can spend class time doing hands on work . At MIT, Agarwal says, two out of every three undergrads use edX as part of their on campus courses. Another unintended consequence of MOOCs is the massive amount of data they produce on how peo...