MOOCs: a massive opportunity for higher education, or digital hype?

As best universities join the name of revolution MOOC risk, Mike Boxall ask what we can learn from history and future dot.com winner will

MOOCs (massive open online courses) is the latest addition to the initial lexicon attached to higher education, and perhaps most important of all. They represent a new generation of online education, freely available on the Internet and has led to many students.

months, we have seen a number of large companies MOOC major universities such as MIT, Harvard, Princeton and Berkeley, which offers free lectures and courses of world leaders in their respective countries fields. And in July, 12 universities in the United States and Europe Coursera announced their participation in a platform online course created by two researchers at Stanford University.

The phenomenon has been compared by the president of Stanford University with a "digital tsunami" that threatens to sweep the classic university. Whether or not increased MOOCs prove to justify such hyperbole, there is no doubt that something very important is happening in the global system, which raises serious questions about the nature and future of higher education.

MOOCs are not entirely new. Both the MIT and the Open University have offered our own open-source educational resources and free online short courses for a few years, but most of the time as "tasters" for power. iTunesU, TED and Academic Earth are among the non-academic sources and excellent free video lectures by eminent specialists. What's new in MOOCs is the breadth, scope and pace of business.

new major players include Coursera, EDX Udacity, Minerva Institute Khan, Straightline and People's University. All offer a wide range of high quality courses, free access, with varying degrees of support online, homework, assessment and certification, even for programs that perform. Each claims to have signed hundreds of thousands of students around the world, but with relatively low percentages perseverance to complete their courses.

Unlike commercial online courses, like the University of Phoenix Private, most have grown MOOCs non-profit spin-off of Ivy League universities in the United States and the institutions involved in the world. They have, however, attracted more than 100 million of private investment and venture capital this year, and the enthusiastic support of the global giants of the industry such as information Google and Pearson. there are clear echoes here of the dot-com revolution of the late 1990s, which is reflected in the diversity of interpretations of industry observers of higher education. Many share the opinion of the president of Stanford MOOCs reproduce breakthrough innovations that have reshaped the global information, media and communications, moving the market power of incumbents for businesses and the creation of upstart providers alternative.

Other

are more skeptical, noting that the current versions are essentially MOOCs modern external correspondence courses are available for 50 years or more. Supporters MOOCs academic tradition points not offer degrees or even recognized university credits for awards that distinguish "appropriate" graduates. Memories of the dot-com boom-and-bust year in question the viability of a business model based on giving away their main products and potentially also their intellectual property rights.

• The economic viability of open (read, free) online learning has not yet been established, but it could be compared to other industries based on the Internet and the Information. In the post-dot-com, value and benefits are mainly from the ownership of technology platforms through which users access and services. This gives platform owners huge amounts of information on markets and sales opportunities have generated hundreds of thousands of captive customers. This is why the global media and technology giants are lining up to invest in this emerging market, which industry analysts Global Inc. have estimated at $ 100 billion worldwide in 2015. And this is where the fiercest battles of the market that can be combatted.
In this first stage of the revolution MOOC, it is premature to predict the impacts on traditional higher education institutions. Universities and hedge funds that invest in this field openly acknowledge the high level of experimentation and testing the waters in question. MOOC current offerings are mostly digital versions of traditional pedagogies - that Dan Butin blogger "Learning Products 1.0 in a Web 2.0 World"

This can and will change depending on the type of interactivity incorporating users are already well established in the social media technologies. There is no intrinsic reason to MOOC knowledge can not be accredited and recognized, especially in power OTOR market opening, with the exception perhaps of the relevant provisions of quality assurance.

, or should we say, mature MOOCs will therefore question our basic notions of higher education, as well as our relationships with news, entertainment and other information have been transformed . When knowledge and educational content becomes property free, how the value of universities justify their fees? When the level of curriculum and support services are available upon request, when and how students want access to them, why should it be tied to school schedules classes liturgical calendar basis? And when the elements of higher education - the content, courses, support, evaluation, rewards - are available separately from world-class suppliers, what is the role of the university

Mike Boxall leads PA Consulting

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