Overall, it was extremely helpful to have a knowledgeable person guide us through this potentially stressful time. Thank you Sue!
Lauren C. – Mother of University of California Berkeley StudentMOOCs – There Time Has Come
It is entirely possible that if you are not intimately involved in higher education you may not have yet heard of MOOCs. MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course. The two fundamental criteria of MOOCs are open access and the ability to support large scale enrollments. The question is no longer if online education will be integrated into the college teaching landscape but rather when – and more tellingly how.
Coursera – a MOOC founded by two Stanford computer science professors – announced in May that it had signed agreements with state universities enrolling more than a million students. A contentious debate continues whether such courses will actually lead to better learning, higher graduation rates, and reduced costs – or to the dissolution of public universities, eliminated faculty jobs, and an inferior education for most students.
Two of the biggest hurdles in higher education – affordability and access – are obvious benefits of the online model. Users can tap into Ivy League quality instruction on their own time, at their own pace and with little or no cost. However, students who cannot self-regulate their learning or students with learning disabilities may need individualized guidance and a personalized process. Plus, the once-in-a-lifetime experience of the residential college and all that it entails is nowhere to be found in online education. Finally, supervision is an issue as MOOCs move toward accreditation as it is inherently much easier to cheat in an online course than a physical classroom. Some MOOCs are now experimenting with site-based testing, both live and remote webcam monitoring, plagiarism detection software, keystroke pattern recognition software, and browser lockdowns.
At San Jose State University, which has led the way in allowing MOOCs to be used for credit, professors have expressed concern that faculty will be replaced with cheap online education. This spring, the Amherst faculty voted against joining edX, the nonprofit Harvard-M.I.T collaboration, and 58 Harvard faculty members sought the creation of a new committee to consider the effect online courses will have on higher education.
Personally, I don’t think I’d like to see a four-year online degree take the place of a brick-and-mortar college education. Yet, for impacted entry level classes, it seems like an obvious remedy. Public universities with diminished budgets can accommodate many more students using the online format than they are able to do with real time lecture sections. It’s disheartening to hear students lament about not being able to move forward in their majors when they are iced out of prerequisite courses due to over enrollment. Strategically offered online courses will be a godsend to many students, particularly those attending cash strapped state universities and community colleges.
For higher education geeks like myself, I can’t wait to see this newest dimension in college education make its debut. As with everything else related to teaching methodology there will be plenty of skeptics and supporters alike – but regardless of which side of the movement you happen to be on – like it or not, MOOCs are here to stay.