The topic of massive open online courses (MOOCs) burst onto the higher education scene in recent years. Early adopters embraced the new learning platform with its promise of expanding educational opportunity to a more diverse, global market. The idea that an elite education could be delivered to virtually any individual, from any country, any background, any income level caught on quickly. Ivy League institutions, state research universities, liberal arts colleges, for-profit education providers, and other venture capitalists all joined the fray. The New York Times deemed 2012 the “Year of the MOOC.”
How did we get there, though, and where do we go from here? Mark McConahay, Associate Vice Provost and Registrar at Indiana University – Bloomington and Thomas Black, Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs and University Registrar at Stanford University explained the forces that led to the rise of MOOCs as one of the hottest and most controversial recent higher education trends. The 2008 financial crisis led to fiscal strain on the federal, state, and institutional levels. Reduced subsidies coupled with renewed efforts focused improving college performance, accessibility and affordability created an environment that made the idea of free MOOC too good to pass up.
The reality of producing and replicating an academically rigorous course platform where students successfully attain a credential proved to be more difficult and expensive than anyone originally thought, though. Faculty began to raise serious questions stemming from issues related to intellectual property, branding, and curricular integration. Many institutions found it difficult and expensive to adapt to new business models and learning platforms.
Additionally, early studies found that MOOCs were not the educationally democratizing panacea that everyone expected. The University of Pennsylvania found that 80% of MOOC users around the world already had an advanced degree. Only half of individuals registered for MOOCs event looked at a single lecture, with an average of 4% of enrollees actually completing the course. And of the international students enrolled in the courses, most were from the economic elite. In Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, 80% of MOOC students came from the richest 6% of the population.
Despite the more recent disillusionment with the MOOC trend, McConahay and Black both argue that they have ultimately been successful in transforming some of the ways that we think about higher education. MOOCs popularized learning, created a better model for lifetime learning, inspired experimentation at the institutional level, provided a data mine for researchers on learners, and changed the currency of learning to a more adaptive model.
There are still a number of questions and issues surrounding the MOOC movement, including identity management, assessment, course logistics, record guardianship, developing common standards for new learning, institutional interoperability, among other things. But, MOOCs are still on the rise. Over 10 million people have taken a course. The American Council on Education has recommended 10 MOOCs for credit. And, moving forward, institutions will need to become more flexible and adaptable to the changing learning models and pedagogy adopted as a result of the MOOC movement.