Massive Open Online Courses

(MOOCs)
Implications for Higher Education

Susama Saha
English 2116
May 3, 2016

Abstract
Purpose of this report is to critically examine the goals of institutions producing or
implementing MOOCs and how they define the effectiveness of MOOC initiatives. This report
includes key ideas and concepts of MOOCs, analysis of its business model, significant
concerns related to academic integrity, closer look at the learning experience for the student,
challenge in providing these courses for free in future, threat to the higher education sector
and works that needed to be address to make it as effective as our traditional education
system.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Summary.................................................................................................................................... 3
Purpose.................................................................................................................................... 3
Research Methods.................................................................................................................... 3
Understanding MOOCs............................................................................................................. 3
Unresolved issues in MOOCs...................................................................................................3
Why MOOCs?........................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 5
Understanding MOOCs.............................................................................................................. 5
Definition of MOOC................................................................................................................ 5
Massive.............................................................................................................................. 5
Open.................................................................................................................................. 6
Online................................................................................................................................ 6
Courses.............................................................................................................................. 6
MOOCs Dual-Layer Course Design..........................................................................................6
Structure of MOOCs.................................................................................................................6
cMOOCs............................................................................................................................... 7
xMOOCs............................................................................................................................... 7
Unresolved Issues in MOOCs....................................................................................................7
Cost free Content...................................................................................................................... 7
Quality of MOOCs..................................................................................................................... 7
Credits and Credentials............................................................................................................8
Reform Traditional Institutions...................................................................................................8
Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 8
References / Bibliography........................................................................................................ 10

SUMMARY
Purpose
This report provides better understanding of the fairly new phenomenon of Massive Online
Open Courses (MOOCs) and a new phase in evolution of traditional higher education system
while critically looking into its implications.

Research Methods
All the information were gathered through researching scholarly peer reviewed article, press
releases, online blogs as well as the non-peer reviewed reports research papers that are
available online. The research result suggests that most current discussions and studies on
MOOCs involve mainly, funding of these courses that makes them freely worldwide and
possible implications of this openness in higher education.

Understanding MOOCs
Even though the MOOC movement seems to have appeared in 2011, it began in 2008 with a
course opened to online enrolment by Siemens and Downes at the University of Manitoba.
The MIT and Stanford University followed Siemens lead with free online courses in technical
fields. Since then it is now making significant attention and interest from government, higher
education institutions and also others who see a business opportunity with possible
exploitation. MOOCs promoters suggest that it will make high quality education more
accessible and decrease the substantial costs of higher education. Educators proposed
MOOCs as free college-level courses that would provide instruction to any student with an
Internet connection, perhaps reaching across border and large number of students per
course. MOOCs are a specialized form of online courses that are massive in enrolment
numbers. MOOCs are open both for access to courses and for interaction between
participants and content resources. MOOCs are free to the enrolled participants and its costs
requirement depends solely on decisions of the sponsors.

Unresolved issues in MOOCs

To most MOOCs appears like a revolutionary moment heading towards a new era of higher
education. Like any revolutions, at this early stage it is difficult to say or assume anything
about the outcomes of MOOCs in distant future. However, most research articles and studies
found during research have series of unanswered questions. Some of the repeated and valid
questions I encountered were about the possibility of the cost free content being served to the
massive population in future. Secondly, if an entirely open online course, with hundreds of
students enrolled will be able to provide the quality qualifications needed to develop
personally and professionally. Question about the accreditation of these courses remain in the
focus since it is almost trivial and vital for employment. And finally and most importantly the
impact on the current education business model, if these institutions will adapt to MOOCs and
sustain or become obsolete. It is too early to be certain, but it is definitely an indication that
MOOCs can be turn into a disruptive technological development that will have radical and long
lasting consequences for many of traditional institution.
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Why MOOCs?
The initial interest of participants may have been driven by the excitement that comes along
with any innovations and widespread unavailability of the products. However at this point,
majority of the students who are enrolled in a course are doing so out of genuine interest in
learning rather than interest of gaining college credit. MOOCs have also attracted variety of
part-time, professional and international students. The flexibility of self-paced customized
courses is among one the most attractive part of MOOCs that is holding its ground firm. The
availability of course material from institutions such as MIT, Stanford and many more are. free
of cost and one click away are a valuable resource for many self-learners.

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Massive Open
(MOOCs)

Online

Courses

INTRODUCTION
Although there has been access to free courses on the Internet for many years, only recently
has there been a great renewal of interest among many educators and students across the
world due to the advent of Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs for short. Enrolment
sizes of MOOCs tend to be high, generally over a few thousands participants. MOOCs are
currently offered by every college and university . MOOCs are freely accessible and openlicensed courses, delivered to large number of learners entirely online was created in 2008 by
David Cormier. Several institutions, including the Stanford, MIT, University of Illinois
Springfield and many more joined David Cormier venture with a similar model. By late 2011,
MOOCs was no longer an experiment in distance education but a national conversation on the
future of higher education. Up till now more than two million people have signed up for these
courses across a wide range of subject areas.
MOOCs today are generally considered to be free, online courses offered by colleges and
universities at large scale. The majority follow a traditional course model, lasting a semester,
although shorter courses are also offered. Enrollees are of all ages and nationalities.
Generally, enrolment rates are in very high range, but completion rates are relatively low (7%).
They are given on all topics and in different languages. Furthermore to offer highest quality
education for free, globally, it is expected that MOOCs will improve oncampus education in a
variety of ways, from helping universities to identify talented students to cost savings to
academic innovation.

UNDERSTANDING MOOCS
Definition of MOOC
The acronym MOOC has been applied to a variety of online and blended courses since it
first offered. Furthermore, the hype surrounding MOOCs has led to catchy acronyms being
invented for course offerings that are similar to types of online courses that have existed for
some years. Some of the recognized ones are SPOC, the POOC, the DOCC, and the SMOC.
Massive
Most common understanding of massive is in terms of actual numbers of course participants
or the capacity for courses to enroll large numbers. Massive also apply to class size that is
too large to be provide accommodations in a face-to-face lecture or a traditional lecture hall.

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Few differentiated between MOOCs and typical online courses not just by class size, but with
respect to design of the course.
Open
The interpretation of the word open with respect to a MOOC was the likelihood for anyone
with a sufficient Internet connection to participate in the course. Open is also understood as
free in terms of tuition that is required for participation. Most continue to perceive the courses
as open, and massive enrolments are expected to persist. It is important to understand
different interpretations of open as applied to access, content, and the online platform.
Online
There is very little disparity in the interpretation of the term online. It is well understood that
MOOCs is available via Internet on a variety of devices to facilitate larger audience and to
expand beyond the traditional campus. Conversely, recent variations of MOOCs are made
available that include offline elements. Such as, instructors using MOOCs as resources to flip
their on-campus classrooms and others are wrapping MOOCs with their own materials for
use on-campus.
Courses
Most people believe that to be labelled as a course, MOOCs should be bounded by time that
is to have a beginning and an end point. It should offer an articulate set of resources and
follow a sequence of activities organized by an instructor in order to address specific learning
objectives or goals. Reasons for enforcing set start and stop points for a MOOC is motivating
participants to engage habitually with content and enabling discussions and peer grading.

MOOCs Dual-Layer Course Design

The basic course design approach includes generating a set of course capabilities and then
designing two complete modalities or layers to accomplish these competencies. One layer is
intended as a guided instructor-centred model with guided instruction, predetermined
activities, and structured objectives. The second layer is designed as student-centred
connected learning model, utilizing problem-based design, self-regulated learning. The goal of
either layer is to allow learners to demonstrate mastery of the course. Learners who need
guided path with purposes will be given that guidance in one layer, while learners that prefer
to regulate and direct their own will be given that flexibility in the other layer. The goal of dual
layer structure is to create truly custom, individualized pathways through a course. Learners
can study on their own when they need to and join with others to collaborate when so desired.
They may watch videos when they need a basic introduction to course content, or they can
find other materials to apply more to their specific sociocultural context. They can complete
the pre-suggested course assignments when they are unsure how to meet the competencies,
or they can create their own artefacts to satisfy the competencies in a manner more along the
lines of what they need in their particular learning journey

Structure of MOOCs
The original aim of MOOCs was to open up education and provide free access to university
level education for as many students as possible. However, popularity of MOOCs and vast
number of enrollment has led many more players to join the trend to take advantage of this
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innovation for financial gain. And since then different ideology have emerged and divided
MOOCs in two main category of approach to higher education. One is cMOOC where c stands
for connectivist, based on principle of learning that believes in connectivism and the other is
xMOOC that is content-based.
cMOOCs
cMOOCs highlight connected, collaborative learning and the courses are built around a group
of like-minded individuals who are relatively free from institutional restrictions. cMOOCs
provide a platform to explore beyond traditional classroom settings and, tend to exist on the
radical fringe of higher education.
xMOOCs
The content-based model (xMOOCs) is essentially an extension of the academic models
practiced within the institutions themselves, which is arguably dominated by instructional
methods with video presentations, short quizzes and testing. xMOOCs is further divided into
two profit and non-profit to serve different purposes. xMOOCs cane be seen as part of MITs
continued development of their Open Courseware initiative offering the opportunity to learners
from different parts of the world to access high quality teaching and learning for free.
However, the opportunity for branding and marketing for institutions is also recognised and
seen to be valuable.

UNRESOLVED ISSUES IN MOOCS

Cost free Content
Many features of higher education cannot be readily replaced online for free alternatives such
as academic support and qualification credential award etc. Particularly in an open online
learning system that serves worldwide. One of the most important components is the content
itself. In traditional business models, universities have control of the customer value
proposition in that they provide any recognition of learning and set tuition fees. The institution
developing higher education contents get some of the fund to do so from their copy rights,
too. For MOOCs, most participating institutions have decided that they will not offer credits as
part of traditional awards for these courses, probably as a result of concerns about the quality
of the courses and the downside risks posed to their branding. It would be also against the
initial ideals of MOOCs if universities started to charge tuition fees for their courses.
Therefore, many institutions participating in MOOCs consider the courses they offer to be a
branding and marketing activity at present. Hence there is a significant challenge for partner
universities to generate income in these ways. The question remains if MOOCs will remain
free of cost in future or if so then for how long or for how many participants.

Quality of MOOCs
In most cases, compared to other online courses, are largely self-directed learning, which is a
very different experience to formal education. The open nature of MOOCs creates a
population that is self-selected to be engaged and passionate about this approach to learning.
MOOCs demand a certain level of digital literacy from the participants, which has raised
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concerns on inclusivity and equality of access. For MOOCs, the most significant form of
quality assurance and enrichment comes from the reflections and informal evaluations of the
person who offers courses and comments from participants using social media. Furthermore,
because these courses are more self-directed learning and require certain quality in
participants to stay engaged till completion of the course, the dropout rates are a concern for
MOOCs. It has been reported that the dropout rates of MOOCs offered by Stanford, MIT and
UC Berkley were 80-95%. For example, only 7% of the 50,000 students who took the
Coursera-UC Berkeley course in Software Engineering completed. If the aim is to give the
opportunity of access to free and high-quality courses from elite universities and professors,
then high dropout rates may not be a primary concern (Gee, 2012). However, it is widely
agreed that it would be useful to improve the retention rates of MOOCs by finding out why and
at what stage participants drop out of courses.

Credits and Credentials

MOOCs often give participants opportunities to earn badges or a certificate of completion. In
some cases, they may even be able to gain credits towards a degree qualification. However,
it has been observed that most learners using MOOCs are people who already have a
degree. In this case, whether the course carries credit seems less important compared to
whether they have evidence through certification that they have participated in a program of
learning and that they can present to an employers as evidence of professional development.
Offering credits for MOOCs can be contentious because, unless the MOOC is as rigorous as
an on-campus equivalent, there is a risk of weakening the brand of the offering institution.
Furthermore, unless participants pay equivalent tuition, it will undercut the institutions core
business. Several suggest that credits should not be offered for MOOCs unless they provide
the same rigor in learning, assessment, and identifiability of participants as face-to-face
courses. A few observed that rampant cheating in online courses serves as a major deterrent
to offering credentials.

Reform Traditional Institutions

With the digital shift many sectors have been through significant changes in their practices
and process. Even with uncertain future of MOOCs it indicates a clear shift in educational
institutes. The potential of MOOCs to open up higher education to the masses has challenged
the traditional way of thinking about delivering higher education. It can be argued that MOOCs
have the potential to threat on higher education in two ways: improving teaching; and
encouraging institutions to develop distinctive missions that will include considerations about
openness and access for different groups of students.
Since technology is here to stay and evolve rapidly, therefore traditional institutions need to
address where the different innovations such as MOOCs fit within their curriculum.
Increasingly, openness will play an important role in driving educational innovation and
transforming higher education.

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CONCLUSION
MOOCs promise to open up higher education by providing accessible, flexible, affordable and
fast-track completion of universities courses for free or at a low cost for learners who are
interested in learning. The popularity of MOOCs has attracted a great deal of attention from
Higher educational institutions and private investors around the world seeking to build their
brands and to enter the education market. Institutions will need to look more closely at and
learn from the different initiatives outside traditional institutions that are developing new
business, financial and revenue models to meet the different needs of new groups of learners
in an open Higher educational marketplace. Open education brings new opportunities for
innovation in higher education that will allow institutions and academics to explore new online
learning models and innovative practices in teaching and learning. At a national and
international level, new frameworks for Higher educational funding structures, quality
insurance and accreditation to support different approaches and models for delivering higher
education will be required. Policy makers will need to embrace openness and make
education more affordable and accessible for all and at the same time be profitable for the
institutions in an open higher education ecosystem.

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REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY
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