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This is the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Last time, we talked about Massive Open Online Courses, also called MOOCs. Tens of thousands or even more people can take these classes all at once. You can be anywhere in the world to take a MOOC. All you need is a computer and a network connection. MOOCs add to a tradition of what is known as distance learning. For years, many colleges have offered classes that are taught partly or mostly online. MOOCs are available in subjects like computer science, engineering or mechanics. Can MOOCs in subjects like arts or the humanities be as effective? Scott Anderson teaches philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He sees both good and bad sides to online courses. Mr. Anderson believes that some parts are fine. For example, when a teacher gives a presentation to the class, there is no special reason why students need to be physically present to hear it. And, he says there is no reason why they need to be physically present to do readings. Mr. Anderson says increased numbers of people taking MOOCs can mean less communication between students and teachers. He says two ways to deal with this are by adding more teachers and graders, and setting up online discussion groups. Lisa Jadwin teaches English and American literature and writing at St. John Fisher College in New York. She says online education has some weaknesses for her subjects. She says the teaching of literature requires …

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report from voaspecialenglish.com | http Modern microfinance started with economist Muhammad Yunus. In the nineteen seventies, he started what became the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He and the bank shared the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand six for the idea of offering small loans to the poor to fight poverty. In twenty ten, reports of harmful micro lending methods and corruption shook the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Yunus recently said in the New York Times that things got out of control. He noted that Andhra Pradesh had intensive lending activity at the time. We spoke to Ghiyath Nakshbendi about changes in the world of microfinance. He is an expert in international business and teaches microfinance as a business model at the Kogod School of Business at American University. He says the government of India in certain states has started taking steps to “guarantee that these institutions are operating under a strict system.”Some experts have raised questions about whether micro lending lifts women or poor families out of poverty. David Roodman is with the Center for Global Development, a research group in Washington. He says microloans do not do a good job fighting poverty. He says over three billion dollars went into microcredit in twenty-ten. But many lenders failed because of bad supervision or failure to repay loans.In one model, governments or nongovernmental organizations give money to microcredit operations …