The Hope and the Hype of MOOCs
Speaker: Bryan Alexander, Senior Fellow
of NITLE; Skip Prichard (OCLC, moderator)
Panel: Anya Kamentz (Fast Company); Ray
Schroeder (University of Illinois, Springfield); Audrey Watters (Hack
Education); Cathy De Rosa (OCLC)
Performed a live poll of audience and
webcaster audience (using text and website); most (small majority)
said MOOCs were more hope than hype; most also never participated in
a MOOC.
Bryan Alexander
Gave a quick overview and history of
MOOCs; began roughly in 2008 in Canada, these are the cMOOCs; later,
around 2010, the xMOOCs were formed at the large universities
(Standford, MIT). 2012 is the start of the MOOC boom as they started
to turn into a business (Udacity); NYTimes declared 2013 the year of
the MOOC and now 2014 is the year of great disillusion.
- cMOOCs are more ground up; more open; rarely licensed; remixable. Still trying to figure that out; “freemium” not proven yet.
- What is the business model for MOOCs?
- CP Snow's “Two Cultures” divide is heavily played out in MOOCs; lots of work and acceptance in science, but less so in the humanities.
- cMOOCs are more ground up; more open; rarely licensed; remixable. Still trying to figure that out; “freemium” not proven yet. Coursera, Udemy; edX; Khan Academy; Uudactiy) are still looking for a model; many turning to corporate education (easier money) and many of them may crash.
- MOOCs are likely to follow the Gartner Hype Cycle curve: excitement, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment; Plateau of Productivity
- MOOCs may become “Just part of life” or become MOCs (turned soley towards for profit); lastly, we may see a xMOOC / cMOOC fusion where the connective nature of cMOOCs is co-opted to make xMOOCs more interactive.
3 comments:
Thank you for the good notes, Mark.
Are you exploring MOOCs in your library work?
Bryan, we're still monitoring the MOOC space and seeing where Smithsonian Libraries can provide (open) content to MOOCs created by educators worldwide; also, from a wider Smithsonian, if there are MOOCs offered from the Institution, we would participate.
The more open content from your treasure trove, the better!
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