MOOCs: learn anywhere, anytime

edX, a non-profit start-up from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had more than 350 000 students enrolled in its first official courses in 2012. Only a year earlier, Coursera was founded and had reached more than 1.7 million students. Together with Udacity with roots also at Stanford, they are the most popular MOOCs.

But what is a MOOC?

Coursera’s website says: “We envision a world where anyone, anywhere can transform their life by accessing the world’s best learning experience.” Udacity’s website says that they “bring accessible, affordable, engaging and highly effective higher education to the world” and that it is “democratising education”.In the simplest terms, a MOOC is an online model for teaching and learning that tears down the walls of traditional classrooms and the gates of university campuses. But some variation of technology-assisted long-distance learning was in place before the arrival of MOOCs.

At this point, it is important to stress what a MOOC is not. Online courses charge tuition, carry credit and limit enrolment to less than a few dozen students to ensure sufficient interaction with instructors. On the other hand, MOOCs are usually free, credit-less and – importantly – massive.

MOOCs are offered virtually, and the medium is the lecture – 8 to 12 minutes long instructional videos are typical. Free webinars, while informative, are not a sequential, structured course offering. They are, therefore, not MOOCs.

Free course material, including recorded lectures and course notes posted online, although fascinating, also do not constitute a MOOC. MOOCs are provided without a registration process; there is no live instructor or formal assessment system.

Where did MOOCs come from ?

Before massiveness became the focus of online learning, openness was the driver for a series of experiments in online education from which MOOCs ultimately emerged.

For instance, in 2011, Sebastian Thrun, a professor at Stanford University offered his ‘introduction to artificial intelligence’ course to everyone with an internet connection and drew 160 000 online registrants. A year later, he founded Udacity. Earlier, in 2009, Professor John Mitchell and his students at Stanford University developed a web platform to support teaching and learning though video and discussion. CourseWare served as the foundation for flipped classroom experiments and inspired the first MOOCs.

The first online course to earn the title of a MOOC was ‘connectivism and connective knowledge’ taught in 2008 by Stephen Downes of the National Research Council of Canada, and George Siemens of Athabasca University.

The actual term ‘MOOC’ was proposed by David Cormier from the University of Prince Edward Island. He was publicising their innovative teaching project when, during an EdTechTalk interview, he invented the term ‘massive open online course’ or ‘MOOC’ for short.

MOOC model kinks

Today, companies offering MOOCs are joining forces with a growing list of universities to support a breathtaking range of courses. They are still in a nascent stage, and a plethora of issues have already arisen for which solutions have yet to be found.

These platforms provide unquestionably high-quality education. Traditional university campuses, on the other hand, have several distinct advantages that will not go away. Importantly, they provide official degrees that are perceived as prerequisites for graduate education and jobs.There is also the question of whether learning can be scaled up to this extent.

While massive numbers of people sign up, very few stick around to earn a certificate of completion. The instructor cannot possibly be as available for tens of thousands of students. Student interaction is even trickier.

Moreover, some students are ill-prepared for university- level work. Cheating is, therefore, a reality. And how can one determine whether participants are learning?

MOOCs and the future of education

Despite these difficulties there are plenty of success stories and interest in MOOCs is not waning. MOOCs bring unlimited high-quality education to the most remote corners of the world. Furthermore, free courses have helped people in their careers and extended professional networks.

MOOCs have been around for more than eight years. Their number is still continuously expanding, as is the diversity of courses offered. The early MOOCs centred on computer science, engineering and maths. Today’s MOOCs boast courses ranging from poetry to philosophy and economics.

The aggressive growth in online content and user base has not led to the results initially predicted and it is not clear whether these online courses will remain free under pressure from those who think of higher education as a business rather than a collective social good.

In our highly connected and increasingly digital education era the line between online and on-campus is already blurring. Even if MOOCs wither away as quickly as they rose to prominence, they will still have taught us something about the pedagogical benefits and pitfalls of online learning.