More on MOOC's ...

Massive Online Courses or better known as MOOC's has taken center stage across educational circles and gained a great deal of attention in the education press - as well as national press - picking up on the nuances of how online learning is evolving - and blending with mentoring, incremental assessment/feedback and online teaching mediums tooled with interactive content.  Thousands - if not millions have experimented with taking a MOOC - and getting something out of the course.  Some have even go as far as learning enough to take an assessment test for credit - or to earn a credential that may be accepted as part of a degree plan.

The focus on MOOC's is hyped by various perspectives with varying reasons - so I am not going to focus on a wide angle here. Similar to the evolution of large scale classroom instructional methods over the last several centuries, where economies of scale derive how educators (institutions, departments and faculty) create curriculum molded by sections delivered by a small set of specialized faculty, MOOC's can be rendered by expert teams assembled to transform content into entertaining mediums that caters to incremental steps sequenced like chapters of a play.  They are educational, challenging to predict the outcomes and benefits as we appreciate the expression of content - in byte size chunks.

The online course is not limited by location, time or inconvenience associated with in-person courses over ten weeks lets say located on a campus in the middle of town.  MOOC's though, are another incarnation led more by economies of scale to share common tools - that are attractive and justified as we continue to evolve education deliver methods, driven to lower costs - and continue to push to educate more people across a larger boundary than ever before.

MOOC's are disrupting, confusing and transforming educational publishing and instructional delivery for good reason across educational levels.  The cost of developing course-ware, content and delivery systems is very labor intensive and time consuming to sustain.  Presentation methods (like a PowerPoint) to stimulate and keep our audience's attention have continued to evolve like a ruler or straight edge provides the ability to trace a line for a given distance.  Tools continue to expand - addressing the complexity and need to syndicate content, divided into learning objects - aligned to learning outcomes - and cataloged for assessment.  Knowledge repositories are annotated for retrieval are huge leaps in techniques that address the limitations of static and isolated books authored as snapshots of what we know or theorize.

Reuse, tracking, repetition and collaboration are supported - and improve upon when we dissect and automate the sequence of a course.  MOOC's, on one level, can be thought of a new mass lecture hall aimed at social and learning affinities - attracting those interested in the subject or author.  The MOOC's address the limitations of in-person and large scale lectures where individuals assemble in a classroom during a fixed time schedule, often lost as a number lacking any connection to the faculty or other students sharing the time, space and experience.  Learners can interact online - and share in discourse with each other - and the faculty - with and without moderation.  The potential feedback loops are ultimately expandable and infinite.

Yet, MOOC's, like traditional courses taught in-person are designed to serve a segment of the education market - not the whole market.  They can't be one-size-fits-all replacing all courses and methods of instruction.   MOOC's are not able to advise - or cater to the needs of learners who need more hands on - or in-person guidance - but can link to those services if available.

MOOC's are also not able to address how the credential, if earned, can be applied toward a degree plan - across institutions easily.  There are many positive benefits offered by a MOOC platform and the courses - but they are not designed for the uninitiated or student with learning disabilities for example - that may not be able to see the videos or appreciate the online content.  When we look at the broad spectrum of learners, we must also consider the full bell curve of students - not just the medium and content assembled for mass presentation and potential absorption.

Much like the Music Staff, created to help teach more people the liturgy and song in the 10th century by an Italian Monk named Guido d ‘Arezzo, MOOC's are templates designed to promote greater appreciation for a subject matter through an online, stimulated experience.  We still need to develop navigational and advising systems to help learners accumulate their credentials into meaningful degree plans that will help them achieve their aspirations - which includes finding their way to a well paying job that helps them continue to grow as a contributing citizen in society.

MOOCs for College Credit

As MOOCs evolve and fit into the higher education environment, we should not forget the difficulty all students face when they seek to discover how any prior learning would articulate before they enroll – especially at selective schools.  There are several issues worth noting about recent blogs and press releases talking about MOOCs and their potential disruptive effect on the higher education eco-system:

1^st, selective and elite schools are generally not advocating transfer-friendly policies, negatively impacting a high volume of students.  Selective schools may just segregate MOOCs as they have with continuing education credits - to afford the popular marketing of prior learning.  If MOOCs begin to shift institutional priorities to emphasize adult or part-time student markets, this is welcome behavior.  However, we have a way to go before that happens.  How many schools will accept MOOCs for core major requirements?  Let’s not forget, most transfer credits apply as electives, which result in more elective credits being taken than needed to graduate for most students today.

2^nd, now that ACE is beginning to evaluate MOOCs for course credit recommendations, we need to correct the false perspective that ACE is publishing course equivalencies.  ACE will publish recommendations, and institutions must volunteer to map their own course equivalencies based upon these recommendations.   Some do this on a per-student basis as transcripts are received.  Some will perform the analysis proactively.  The challenge is to keep up with the equivalency implications coming from an increasing number of sources when there is no form of standard mapping or general alignment with regional feeders. 

3^rd, most institutions are reluctant to proactively disclose transfer equivalencies online, let alone how prior learning addresses core program requirements.  Students seldom are given the tools to assess “will my credits transfer.”  So, MOOC students seeking credit may learn their MOOC courses do not accelerate their degree completion contrary to what is inferred by the MOOC venues.  AcademyOne’s CollegeTransfer.Net will include MOOC equivalencies much like AP, CLEP, IB and other forms of course exam assessments, but it will take time for institutions to assess and promote their acceptance and tagging of MOOCs against their own course offerings.  When a course does not match those offerings, an institution may offer elective credit or none at all.

4th, I believe MOOCs will have the same difficulty mapping to core degree requirements that AP, CLEP, IB, UCEL, Learning Counts and other prior learning credits face today.  There is major resistance from institutions about how they award credit for prior learning regardless of the source of learning.  Course currency is not uniform, unless it fits within the general education common core of courses being developed across some states. 

5^th, MOOCs will be an alternative course platform for community colleges who are seeking to offer students a wider choice of courses for non-credit and possible credit.  How MOOCs fit into two-year degree plans is yet to be seen.  Transcripts including MOOC courses have not been tested for how they will enable student portability of credits from a two-year school to a four-year school. 

The anticipated huge volume of MOOC students over the next few years most likely will not realize the benefit and recognition of their learning achievement beyond elective courses toward the goals of lowering their degree costs or lessening their time to a degree.  This will remain true unless there are standards developed with governance that would create predicable outcomes.   Across the various sectors of higher education, this will be hard to achieve even on a voluntary basis. 

One prediction I may make is that MOOC students may be good targets for less selective schools, which may mean we will see the continued development of networks aligning recognition and brands similar to transfer agreements or stackable certificates.   I am sure one or more institution will pursue this avenue, but that still begs the question of how transferable and mobile these credits will be across boundaries, institutions, departments and their majors.