DOING THE HOMEWORK ON MOOCS

 

I take all surveys with a grain or more of salt, but here’s one worth thinking hard about: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vala-afshar/infographic-adoption-of-m_b_3303789.html

 An educational service company called Enterasys surveyed several hundred educators around the world.  Here is some of what they found:

• Right now  13 percent of the responding institutions offer MOOC;  43 percent plan to offer MOOCs by 2016

·        Biggest value of MOOCs: 44 percent say  keeping up with development in education, 35 percent raising visibility of the school, 16 percent improving quality of  residential teaching

• 44 percent  are planning to offer MOOCs for credit.

·        67 percent believe that MOOCs will never replace traditional, residential classes; 5 percent said yes within 5 years.

To me the most interesting result was  that 84 percent of the respondents thought MOOCs complement residential education. What do they mean by this? Do they think students will continue to pay the high cost of residential education if the college down the road  will let them stay home and get credit for taking MOOCs?  Do they have plans for “hybridizing” MOOC material with existing courses? Have they looked closely at what support services their students will need to succeed in MOOCs or related courses?  Have they talked in depth with faculty members about what will really benefit their students?  I doubt that many institutions have done their homework on these issues.  But I’d like t hear from people on the ground in institutions planning to give credit for MOOCs.