Massively MOOC

The early market for massive open online courses (MOOCs) brings more approaches than you might realize. Take a look at 8 game changers.

A school-vendor partnership will be testing out a new twist on the MOOC: offering a three-credit course in social sciences for $50, considerably less than the course costs through the university.

Starting in July, Tiffin University, a 7,000-student institution in Tiffin, OH, and Altius Education, which describes itself as "part university, part technology company," will be teaming up to deliver "Foundations of Success." The course is being offered through Ivy Bridge College, Tiffin's associate program that allows students to attend in person or online and transfer their earned credits to four-year schools with transfer agreements. The standard tuition per credit at Tiffin, $690, is considerably more than the MOOC fee.

In a move aimed at buttressing its position as a leader in online education, Deakin University  launched its first massive open online course (MOOC) on 17 June and plans to  use it as a test-bed for redeveloping its full learning environment.

 

Unlike the MOOC offerings from most universities, Deakin’s free online course will be a taster designed to promote fee-paying courses and will offer students a pathway to earning academic credit.

 

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have certainly got higher education folks talking. These free online courses, often from prestigious universities, have prompted one obvious question: why should students pay to go to university when they can get quality courses for free?

In a move aimed at buttressing its position as a leader in online education, Deakin University will launch its first massive open online course (MOOC) on Monday.

I am one of the signers of the open letter by the professors of philosophy at San José State University to Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University concerning his involvement in edX, a start-up company that offers massive open online courses (MOOCs). The letter, collaboratively written by members of the department and approved by all, explained our reasons for resisting the implementation of JusticeX, a course based on videotaped lectures from Sandel’s massively popular Harvard course on justice, in our curriculum. We wrote:

There is no pedagogical problem in our department that JusticeX solves, nor do we have a shortage of faculty capable of teaching our equivalent course. We believe that long-term financial considerations motivate the call for massively open online courses (MOOCs) at public universities such as ours. Unfortunately, the move to MOOCs comes at great peril to our university. We regard such courses as a serious compromise of quality of education and, ironically for a social justice course, a case of social justice.

Although our letter sparked much needed discussion about the value of MOOCs, confusion remains about the options presented by new education technologies and the potential value they may have for higher learning.

The São Paulo University (USP) and the portal company Veduca launched last week the first Massive Open Online Course in Latin America. Courses will be taught by USP professors through the platform. Initially two disciplines will be available: mechanical physics and probability and statistics. More courses are expected to emerge soon.

Massive open online courses have the potential to change higher education, but people and schools implementing MOOCs face some emerging legal questions.

In this subject you will explore Education as a social institution charged with communicating the knowledge, skills and cultural values that society considers most important.

Massive open online course (MOOC) completion rates hover around 7 percent worldwide, and beyond stringing criticism from MOOC skeptics in higher education, there’s not much documentation for why so few students complete the classes.

Open Culture, a website documenting the growth of MOOCs, recently published a list of the most common reasons for dropping out of MOOCs before the courses were finished, revealing a few telling tidbits about potential shortcomings for MOOC providers.

 

Leddy says this because he seems to be familiar with only one kind of MOOC - those of the MIT and Stanford model. Not all MOOCs are alike, yet despite the fact that he has had the traditional education that would allow him to read, think about, and intelligently respond to any field of study, that does not seem to extend to education itself. I am not sure what publications like the Boston Review or the Chronicle of Higher Ed is up to, but the majority of articles about MOOCs in such publications are typically written by those who have never taught online, taught a MOOC, or even taken a MOOC. They are written by people who have not even reviewed the history or literature (however scant) on MOOCs.