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.
