Answer: Yes, according to W. Joseph King and Michael Nanfito, small colleges should consider “how they can use MOOC technology to continue creating and sustaining their collaborative traditions. MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course, and are designed to open education to the masses for free and at their convenience. Current MOOC topics run the full gambit from accounting to vision casting, with more being added every day.
MOOCs Are Big, Very Big
According to the New York Times the top three MOOC players are Coursera, Udacity, and edX and approximately $100 million dollars has been raised for MOOCs. Additional MOOC providers:
- Carnegie Mellon University – Open Learning Initiative
- Open Yale Courses
- Class Central
How Do MOOCs Work?
Typically, MOOCs are offered via online education through a learning management system (LMS). Original MOOCs granted certifications and centered around continuing education. Recent discussions have pushed to offer MOOCs-for-credit.
What Are the Downsides?
MOOCs are fairly new so there is not much evidence positive or negative on which to form an opinion. However, here are a few facts to consider:
- Acceptance of credit varies
- No established financial models
- Hit or miss quality of courses
- Lack of instructor engagement
What Is the Future of MOOCs?
According to E-Learning Provocateur:
- Universities finally accept they are service providers
- The vast majority of students will be overseas
- The pecking order will be reshuffled
- Research will become a competitive advantage
- Universities will flip their classrooms
- The pedagogy of MOOCs will be enriched
- Content providers will charge for assessment
- Universities will offer credits for MOOCs
- Online cheating will mushroom
- Academic inflation will skyrocket
- Offshoring will become the rule, not the exception
- MOOCs will target the corporate sector
- The corporate sector will embrace xMOOCs
- AN xcMOOC hybrid will emerge as the third varient
Join the MOOC Movement Today by registering for your free MOOC with Edvance360’s MOOC360 platform.