Topic for July 24 ( Fri )

[Alex !]

The MOOC Experiment by Dr. Mariappan Jawaharlal

 

New York Times declared 2012 as the year of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). It was the year 

when Udacity, Coursera and edX, the three leading MOOC companies, took the education world by storm and promised a lot.

Udacity, proclaimed that in 10 years, job applicants will tout their Udacity degrees. In 50 years, there 

would be about 10 educational institutions in the world providing higher education and Udacity has a shot at being one of them. Last year it threw in the towel because "the basic MOOC is a great thing for the top 5 

percent of the student body, but not a great thing for the bottom 95 percent." 

Udacity changed its course, from trying to become one of the top 10 institutions in the world, to focusing 

on corporate and vocational training. 

EdX, predicted that in less than a year one of edX's partner universities would offer a purely online degree. Three years have passed since then and there is no sign of purely online degree from any of its partner 

institutions. 

Coursera, founded by two Stanford professors, is by far the largest in terms of the number of courses 

offered and students enrolled. However just like Udacity and edX, Coursera does not have much to show 

off in terms of student success rates.

So what is going on? What is the future of MOOC?

Well, MOOCs are going through a maturing process like any other business. Despite all the hype, there is 

no question that MOOCs are here to stay.

What advocates of MOOC have failed to see is that it is not about reaching hundreds of thousands of people. Educating mass numbers of people in higher education quickly and for free is a pipedream. 

That will never happen for the same reason why most people never achieve their New Year resolutions. 

According to the research, just 8 percent of people achieve their New Year's goals. This data is consistent 

with the completion rate of MOOC data. 

In many ways low completion rates can also be compared to window shopping. Lot of people will like to 

look at things in the mall but not everyone is willing to pay for it.

When MOOC pioneers declared that they would educate masses from all over the world in very quickly and for free, they were just being academic idealists. It requires time, effort, and lots of dedication and resources to successfully complete a course. Unless there is a compelling reason, no one will follow through homework assignments, quizzes and final exams.

So what are the challenges MOOCS face today? 

Design and development of online courses require careful planning and a lot more efforts than teaching a 

traditional course. MOOCs must be developed in a way that integrates technology and sound pedagogy. 

Mere use of technology does not engage students, and most MOOCs are just as boring for this reason.

The biggest challenge for MOOC is the assessment. 

Conducting proctored exam does not fit the online MOOC model and as of now there is no viable approach to conduct verified online exams. With video streaming and other technology including biometric identification becoming popular, it is only a question of time when students will be able complete all exams online leading to certifications.

Another challenge is engineering and science courses that require conducting experiments and hands-on projects. Virtual experiment are a real possibility but there is no conclusive data if that can replace actual physical experiment.

Finally, learning is not just about pure academics alone. Interacting with other students with diverse cultural backgrounds, club activities, working in group projects and having discussions with a teacher are important part of campus life and it cannot be done effectively online.

What is going to happen in the near future?

Nobody knows what will happen to the three leading contenders today. Enrollments and attrition remain 

flat. Interestingly, current MOOCs are not reaching the people who it is originally supposed to reach.

The immediate beneficiaries of the MOOC experiment, ironically, are those that did not want anything to 

do with online learning in the first place - universities. With assessment issues unresolved, universities are well positioned to offer a blended learning model, which takes advantage of their traditional classroom sessions for discussion ("flipped classrooms") and assessment while delivering most content online. In addition universities offer all the advantages of a campus experience.

MOOCs have played an important role. They promised a lot and did not deliver much. 

At the same time, the MOOC movement has opened the door for affordable and just-in-time education.