Higher education and the digital revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, social media, and the Cookie Monster
Section snippets
Course objective
“Just because you haven’t found your talent yet, doesn’t mean you don’t have one.”
– Kermit the Frog
Those of us born in the ‘70s or later share a set of childhood friends. You may not always think about them, but Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, and the Cookie Monster—to name just a few of the Muppets living on Sesame Street—have shaped the lives of millions of children. They taught us how to spell (think of the ABC-DEF-GHI song), how to count (remember the frightening Count von Count), how to
History of distance learning
The history of higher education can be traced back to ancient Greece, where Plato founded his academy roughly 2,400 years ago. At that time, however, and for the next 1,400 years or so, higher education was limited to a precious few. Only in the Middle Ages did larger scale universities begin to appear in Bologna (1088) and in Paris, where the Sorbonne was founded in 1150. However, despite the change in scale, these universities worked in nearly the same manner as the first academies did:
Student population
In principle, the possibility to learn without being dependent on time and place and at nearly zero cost makes participation in a MOOC suitable for everyone, although there are some limitations in this respect (see details on this below). Whether all MOOC participants actually graduate successfully from the course is a different issue altogether. Following through on a MOOC or a SPOC requires a relatively high level of intrinsic motivation and self-discipline. Successful graduates therefore
Benefits
There are various reasons why developing a MOOC or SPOC might make sense for a university or distance learning provider. In what follows we provide a structured overview of the key objectives and benefits that can be achieved by online distance learning. We present our framework as a Sesame Street-style ABC song.
Student assessment
In order to offer a truly comparable alternative to traditional education, online distance learning providers will need to deliver formal certificates or diplomas for at least some of their courses. This raises the question of how to ensure that the person who followed the course is the same as the one who took the exam. A traditional solution, used by several providers, is to conduct exams in person in a physical test center. Udacity and edX, for example, have entered a partnership with
Digital and social media use policy
While online distance learning has already obtained an established place in the education landscape, it is likely that the importance of MOOCs and SPOCs will increase even further in the future. The next generation of students who are knocking at your door are digital natives, bringing with them a unique set of opportunities and challenges (Pucciarelli & Kaplan, 2016): Not only are these future students more comfortable substituting a MOOC for a traditional face-to-face lecture, but they also
Concluding information
“Me do anything for cookie – Cowabunga!”
– The Cookie Monster
Now, coming back to our initial question, what does all of this mean for the future of the education industry in general and business education in particular? Look at the webpage “No-Pay MBA” to get some idea. This site offers the possibility to combine MOOCs offered by top business schools such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Wharton into a curriculum equivalent to that of a full-time MBA program, for less than $1,000. A full program
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