MOOCs: FUTURE OR FAD?

I was talking with a few of our MBA students last week and I was curious about their take on one of the latest emerging technologies in higher education – the MOOC – an acronym for Massive Open Online Courses. The theory is basically this – classes are put online and available to anyone in the world – no college credit but they are free. Many of our top universities in the U.S. offer MOOCs including Stanford, Duke, Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, Yale, and UCLA and hundreds of thousands of students worldwide have enrolled in MOOCs.

My first question(s) to the students were strategic in nature. What did they think of the MOOC concept, what was its potential, and what kind of threat(s) did it pose to higher education? They all thought MOOCs had lots of promise and offered at least a partial solution to some of the problems of higher education like rising costs and limited access to higher education. But they were quick to point out some of the glaring issues that MOOCs faced, namely: (1) an employer typically wants some type of proof that students have truly learned material; (2) students actually want to receive credit for courses they take; (3) colleges and universities would like to stay in business and keep making money; and (4) professors probably don’t want their jobs outsourced to computers. As for the long term threat, they were less in agreement about that but one student said “it’s hard to anticipate how new products/ideas will evolve in the market. Blockbuster certainly didn’t view Netflix as a threat with their initial business model. But the Netflix business model evolved and Blockbuster folded.”

My second question was whether they thought MOOCs were a possibility for MBA programs/courses. They all said no way – that MBA curricula didn’t really fit the MOOC model.

I then handed them each a description of the University of Virginia’s Darden School pioneering MOOC course entitled “Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses” which begins January 28, 2013. It’s available worldwide at no cost to anyone with a computer and internet connection. The Darden School had nearly 20,000 sign-ups in the first 30 days after the MOOC was announced. This course just happens to parallel a course in the Darden MBA program focused solely on the challenges of growing existing entrepreneurial businesses. The MOOC also fits the Darden mission of educating both students and practitioners. Darden faculty believe they will reach thousands of students and small business owners all over the world who otherwise would not have the opportunity to come to Darden and learn and in so doing will help create jobs and have a positive impact in these students’ societies.

I love the look on students’ faces when you present them with an idea that is both logical and one they haven’t considered.

Isn’t that what learning is all about?