Arizona State University to offer an entire year of freshman courses online

Arizona State University is launching a new initiative called the Global Freshman Academy, which will offer a freshman-year curriculum online through a website called edX.

The academy will provide 12 massive open online courses, or MOOCs, from ASU faculty on subjects from math to humanities, The Washington Post reports. This summer, Introduction to Astronomy is set to start, followed in the fall by Human Origins and Western Civilizations: Ancient and Medieval Europe, with the other courses gradually being added over the next two years.

Anyone who would like to audit the courses can do so for free, but students who would like to earn credit will just have to pay a $45 fee to confirm their identity. When the class is done, they can take a proctored final exam, and those who pass pay a tuition fee of up to $200 per credit toward a degree from ASU. Students who pass eight classes this way can enroll as sophomores, with a total cost around $5,000 — half of what in-state students pay and 20 percent of what students from outside of Arizona pay. ASU President Michael M. Crow is excited about the new offering, saying: "There are many pathways to success, both academically and in life. This is now one of them."

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