My post was written from a student’s point of view. Whilst there is a lot of discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of MOOCs from an educationalist’s point of view, we don’t often hear what the student thinks.

My conclusions remain the same:
1. There is a need for free, short, no obligation courses that the student can take anytime, anywhere – even at their own pace
2. Not all students want an accredited piece of paper at the end. For many (myself included), it’s about learning something new or taking up a new challenge
3. MOOCs, at present, are probably of greatest value to the non-traditional, non-campus based student who may be time or resource poor
4. Can 34,000 students for a single course all be wrong?

Whilst I agree that MOOCs may not be for everyone and that some of the wrinkles still need to be ironed out, they offer a learning experience to which people are flocking – and based on feedback from the student forums – and finding enjoyable and useful.

Those universities that have the highest standing, e.g. Ivy League, Oxbridge etc, are likely to attract the most students. It may be that quality of MOOCs run by such institutions is assured because of the reputation that they already have.

I’m sure the debate will rumble on, but let’s not forget the student in all this.

Sharon

Alan Cann and I were chatting about your post on Google+. I thought I’d share here:

Alan Cann 11:07
Clay Shirky has said it all (as is his way). MOOCs are cheaper but not better, see: http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2012/11/napster-udacity-and-the-academy/
In a free economy, Gresham’s Law applies and bad money drives out good.?

Martin Hawksey 12:14
+Doug Clow has a nice post reflecting on Clay piece. Particularly liked “we knew MP3s were acoustically dodgy compared to full CDs. But they were easier to get hold of, and that made all the difference” http://dougclow.org/2012/11/12/moocs-oer-and-wikipedia-for-great-justice/?

Alan Cann 11:37
VHS and Betamax again already. Gresham’s Law.?

Martin Hawksey 11:49
And of course betamax/betacam had a long life after VHS won the home market because of the production quality was higher.

I don’t think many institutions will be using the slogan ‘Poppleton University, the betamax of higher education’ ;)?

https://plus.google.com/114662816634467534305/posts/4wbbkBjumoH

Interested to hear your thoughts

Martin

I’ve been dabbling in MOOCs too, and share many of your feelings. I think most of the backlash is around the “this is revolutionising educational practice” and “this will destroy universities” type hype. The big MOOCs use pretty mainstream pedagogy developed through distance education for many years, so in that sense they aren’t revolutionary. However the free aspect (at the moment) is and like you I’ve enjoyed looking at things with risk/cost.

Sheila