MOOCs, SPOCs and next generation Open Access Learning

The question remains: What lies ahead for universities and schools that offer a general education? Instead of creating MOOCs, perhaps it would make more sense for them to invent the school of tomorrow. They might favor hands-on learning and experimentation, further students' confidence to take on the role of teacher by entrusting them with the freedom to devise and design, foster learning, exchange, and synergy by bringing people together to share and swap theories and applications, be it in small groups, or workshops. In this way they would fuel and feed the creative appetite, giving us the means and mental force to imagine a different world, a world that puts the environment on a pedestal, respects its moral obligations, where technology rhymes with humanity, and the economy champions progress and not simply financial gain.

As director of the École de Design, I have no chance of putting together a better MOOC than Stanford and Tim Brown has done on Design Thinking. But in our workshops our students. taught by excellent designers will know how to put together the world of tomorrow, using information of the world, from around the world. - By Christian Guellerin

Have the major American platforms already won the day, or is there still room for outsiders?

This does not necessarily represent a threat for the instructional players in the field already, because the latter have an educational reputation and offer certification of users, but also because a ‘good’ MOOC requires enormous efforts before going on line: hours and hours of pedagogical video recording and a really solid course content.