BIG question: should we care about the motivations behind MOOC based TEL?

[eennever]

Lately I have been reading a fair bit about MOOCs in Stephne Downes web pages:

http://www.downes.ca/

and SmartPlanet

http://www.smartplanet.com/

It seems like MOOCs are now meeting the delivery specs and programs promised by the Web’s capabilities but not actually deliverable by TEL until quite recently. What I am seeing in some of the articles and links though, is a tension between what the business model of a MOOC should be and the educational, marketing and social justice goals of MOOCs.

Stanford university recently revisited their business model, and as they really put the “massive” into open online courses it is worth paying attention, and what they seem to have found is that the staff time devoted to TEL is not stacking up economically for the university.

Ultimately the institution I work for wants to know can it make money from a MOOC, although they acknowledge the marketing it provides is really good too. The TEL implications and educational implications are relatively secondary considerations. Are we moving down the MOOC road for economic and political more than educational or social reasons. Does it matter?

Has anyone else out there more experience of MOOCs and how TEL was used to enhance it? Are institutions keen for us to use MOOCs for a variety of reasons and does institutional motivation matter to the TEL package that is ultimately delivered?

These are pretty broad questiosn I know but I often find motivation drives instutional allocation of funds and resources to support initiatives. Education is a business as welll as a profession, a craft and a calling. I jsut want to ask if anyone out there has an opinion on how MOOCs have been implemented to date and where they may be going, especially if TEL is to have the resources to use MOOCs effectively aover the longer term.

Thanks and look forward ot some ideas being shared.

Ellen

[Niall Watts]

The MOOC is a completely different experience from ‘conventional higher ed’,  a bit like a virtual learning environment open to the world. Such a MOOC is a valuable tool for those whose primary motive is to learn, to experiment with new ideas and to network with like-minded individuals around the world. It may be particularly useful for people in developing countries and those with little access to formal education.

So I don’t think a MOOC can replace a university course for school leavers. I doubt that they have the motivation or capacity  for self-directed learning. To make money the MOOC will have to be pitched carefully and consider issues like assessment and plagiarism which are not issues in a free course such as this. Stanford are still experimenting.

To be pedantic if you charge fees it is not a MOOC as it is not ‘open’. It is an MCOC – Massive Closed Online Course

[ScottJohnson]

Have to agree with Naill that MOOCs are a different experience and maybe not even “educational” in the sense of having strictly structured outcomes based on simulated activities. In a world where barrirers between fields of study need to come down we need some place to jolt our brains out of habitual expectations and skillfull performance of old tasks not because they are useful anymore, only because are fond of cleverness. The xMOOC brand being created are commodities that may prove useful as we transform HE into ivy clad vending machines but we still need some portion of the environment outside our deliberate control where mutations can flourish or die without being distorted by the economy we’ve made of society. Being reaquainted with the pleasure of thinking together without limits, fees or even direct purpose is enough for me. My image of a MOOC is like a river without a dam on it.

[Megan Kime]

I had an interesting discussion of these kinds of issues this week at the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference. The presentation given there on MOOCs seemed to assume that a way needed to found for MOOCs to make some money, which given the founding ethos seems troubling (although of course I recognise that resoures have to be found somewhere etc. etc.). A lot of recent talks I’ve seen on MOOCs have concentrated on this issue – how can we make money out of them? I’d agree with Niall that its not really a MOOC if thats the purpose.

Scott – I love that river analogy!

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