For some juniors and seniors at Union High School, their choice of electives will soon be seemingly endless.
The R-XI school board unanimously approved a program that will allow these students to take Massive Open Online Courses, or “MOOCs” for a half a credit next semester.
The class will be pass/fail and will not count toward the student’s overall grade point average.
MOOCs are offered by universities worldwide, including some of the most highly accredited U.S. institutions such as Harvard, Yale or MIT.
They cover just about any subject imaginable, from The Beatles to the Big Bang Theory, or foreign languages to physics.
Dr. Justin Tarte, director of curriculum and support services, said about 40 students are already in the required application process to take these courses next semester.
Students must go through an interview process with their guidance counselor and other officials to justify why they want to take MOOCs. Once approved for the program, students will be responsible for finding enough of them to fill an 18-week semester.