Twelve leading universities in the US and Europe have recently joined Coursera, an online delivery platform which provides free courses from prestigious institutions such as Stanford, UC Berkeley and Caltech.

The growth in massive open online courses encourages teachers to rethink about their interaction with students. It also offers a great opportunity for them to innovate their lesson plans. “The fact that students learn so much from the videos gives me more time to cover the topics I consider more difficult, and to go deeper,” said a Stanford professor who taught Cryptography.

However, examination and assessment issues can put a brake on the development of web-based education. For example, some cautioned that cheating problems can compromise the chance of offering credit-bearing courses entirely online.

Read this article from The New York Times to learn more.