Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 13

Enter the Anti-MOOCs: The Reinvention of Online Learning as a Form of Social Commentary
“The whole MOOC mania has got
everyone buzzing in academia, but scaling is
a great challenge,” said Bruce Chaloux, who
until his recent untimely death was executive
director of the Sloan Consortium, an advocacy
group for online education. “I have to
believe that at some point, when the underwriting
ends, to keep high quality, Georgia
Tech would have to float to more traditional
tuition rates.”
Even if providers find ways for the
costs of for-credit MOOCs to remain modest,
there is still the lingering question of
whether the degrees will ever be valued as
highly as those from brick-and mortar institutions
— or at all.
“Georgia Tech is exceptionally important
because it’s a prestigious institution
offering an important degree at very low cost
with a direct connection to a Fortune 100
corporation that will use it to fill their pipeline,”
said Terry W. Hartle, the senior vice
president of the American Council on Education.
“It addresses a lot of the issues about
universities that the public cares about. But
how good and how transferable it is remain
to be seen.”
Students on MOOCs
For students, the promise of MOOCs
is very appealing at the surface. Many
current models present opportunities
for learners to freely experiment with a variety
of subjects and acquire new skills that
may not be associated with a degree plan
at brick-and-mortar institutions. An English
major, for example, could enroll in an
edX course on the foundations of computer
graphics or circuits and electronics.
One such student, 21-year-old
Feynman Liang, has completed 36 massive
open online courses through Udacity and
Coursera — while simultaneously pursuing
majors at both Amherst College and Dartmouth
University. He believes the combination
of face-to-face and online courses have
given him a more well-rounded education.
“A big reason why I'm able to have taken so
many MOOCs is because I'm fortunate to be
in an environment which enables it,” Liang
reported to TheGoodMOOC.com. “Professors
and other students provide me with an
intellectual community I can go to whenever
I have questions about things being covered
in MOOCs.”
At the same time, Liang notes a concern.
“I find MOOCs to particularly excel
when it comes to lectures and assignments
requiring little creativity,” said Liang. “Traditional
classrooms are superior to MOOCs
when it comes to personalized mentoring
and uniform standards, which make assigning
creative assignments particularly difficult.”
While Liang does not believe that the
quality of MOOCs will surpass that of traditional,
face-to-face learning experiences,
he recognizes their promise. “By shifting the
lecture and homework part of the classroom
to an online platform, professors can focus
on adding value through personalized mentoring
and open-ended projects.”
Liang’s balanced perspective is an
important part of the ongoing conversation
around MOOCs, and points to a future in
which MOOCs have an understood and
valuable role to play in concert with more
formal education approaches. Others see a
need to move to new models, informed by
the MOOC experiments, but which include
other elements, including more personalization
and interactivity, along with improved
engagement strategies.
Enter the Anti-MOOCs
In this mix, some institutions are calling
an end to MOOC mania, and making impassioned
arguments for more measured
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