Are MOOCs dead, or are they on the rise? If you read mainstream media, you'll probably conclude that the answer is "both."
"The best way to resolve these contradictory signals is probably to accept that the MOOC, itself still an evolving innovation, is little more than a rhetorical catchall for a set of anxieties around teaching, learning, funding and connecting higher education to the digital world," writes Anya Kamenetz, an educational futurist and author of the books Generation Debt and DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education.
"MOOCs are raising as much excitement outside the academy as trepidation and antipathy within it," Kamenetz writes. Unfortunately, instead of transforming education, MOOCs often use the least interesting methods of information delivery--"synchronous, several-week courses featuring short lecture video clips paired with rapid-recall multiple choice questions, plus some form of exams, papers, and project assignments, and a small amount of reading."
According to Kamenetz, the "tradition-bound" education industry is facing serious challenges around issues such as:
But online learning has yet to reach its transformative potential--nor can it--through MOOCs. "xMOOCs have never been and will never be the sum total or even the best example of experimentation with truly open learning," she writes.
“Anya Kamenetz offers a thoughtful and much-needed call to rethink higher education in a world of spiraling tuition costs, a 50 percent college drop-out rate, and a growing understanding that the one-size-fits-all college model is broken,” says Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind.
Kamenetz will be a featured speaker at AACRAO's 2014 SEM Conference with her talk "DIY U: The Education Revolution," focusing on how to create an education system that is affordable, accessible, and relevant to the way we live our lives. Kamenetz will share a glimpse into the classrooms of the future from her experiences running a peer-led self-directed online learning community, playing with robots and 3-D printers, and brainstorming with the designers of free and openly accessible resources for teaching, learning, assessment, and finding a job.
Named an "Educational Gamechanger" by The Huffington Post, and a two-time winner of the national Education Writers of America prize, Kamenetz is a senior writer for Fast Company and NPR's lead educational blogger.
To view the brochure and register online for the AACRAO's 24th Annual SEM Conference, click here.