George Siemens taught the first MOOC back in 2008. He shares his take on why they're still valid -- and what might happen next in Higher Ed.
Excerpts:
As the failures and shortcomings of MOOCs were disseminated, schadenfreude mingled with personal beliefs prompted academics to lament completion rates and the failure of online learning while self-validating their own importance.
_________________________
Corporate MOOCs will be the big trend of 2014. ...MOOC providers will ...fill in the gap that existing universities do not address.
_________________________
...[George Siemens is] struck by the range of errors and misunderstanding within both camps.
...MOOCs are here to stay, in some form or other, not least because universities face many structural challenges.
…what learners really need has diversified over the past several decades as the knowledge economy has expanded. Universities have not kept pace with learner needs and MOOCs have caused a much needed stir — a period of reflection and self-assessment. To date, higher education has largely failed to learn the lessons of participatory culture, distributed and fragmented value systems and networked learning. MOOCs have forced a serious assessment of the idea of a university and how education should be related to and supportive of the society in which it exists.
So what happens now?
Corporate MOOCs will be the big trend of 2014. ...MOOC providers will partner with corporations and fill in the gap that existing universities do not address.
Related posts & tools by Deb:
- Receive Best of the Best news, taken from Deb's NINE curation streams @Deb Nystrom, REVELN, sent once a month via email, available for free here, via REVELN Tools.
Via Dr. Susan Bainbridge, Deb Nystrom, REVELN
Turbulence, escalating costs point the way way to disruptive new forms of learning, highlighting networked learning, open systems and giving systems that have the correct balance of process, involvement and results.
Flexibility and adapting to change is the essential new competency of the millenium, especially for higher education. ~ Deb