Eric Foner says he insisted on his MOOC on the Civil War being free

The final installment of Columbia history professor Eric Foner’s Civil War and Reconstruction Era course will be released on the non-profit massive open online course platform edX on  Wednesday.

In the past, Columbia has offered a number  MOOC courses on the for-profit platform Coursera. However, Foner said he wanted to ensure that his course be offered online entirely for free—an option not available on  Coursera.

“I didn't want this to be monetized, I don't want anyone to make a profit off it,” Foner said. “I am not getting paid a penny for doing it—no one is paying to take the course.”

The free online course, which is managed by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, features eight-to-10 minute segments of Foner’s lectures, forum-style discussion sections, a gallery of primary sources, and optional quizzes. The lectures, which were recorded when Foner taught the course for the final time last spring, have been edited to include images when names and places are referenced during the lecture.

Foner, who is set to retire next spring, said he wanted to release his course online so anybody in the world could access his teaching of the subject. ...