To MOOC or not to MOOC - that is the question (Balaji Venkataraman & Asha Kanwar)
To MOOC or not to MOOC - that is the question (Balaji Venkataraman & Asha Kanwar)
Dr. Venkataraman Balaji, Director, Technology & Knowledge Management
Professor Asha Kanwar, President & Chief Executive Officer
Rarely do developments in Higher Education attract coverage in international media. MOOC, Massive, Open Online Course, is one such development. Although MOOCs as a concept was developed in Canada and the first MOOC was offered by the University Manitoba in 2008, the focus of current media interest is on MOOCs as promoted by elite universities in the USA. A number of reports on MOOC developments are available at the US-focused Chronicle of Higher Education as are a number of analyses. Key reports have tended to pay attention to the business models of the three players, Coursera (largest), Udacity and edX, the last being non-profit. But one thing is common—these are all big brands.
Sir John Daniel has recently provided possibly one of the most insightful analyses of MOOCs. Sir John points out that the rise of MOOCs provides new opportunities for experimentation in online education, which has been a low priority matter for elite North American institutions. Promotion by and participation of such universities is a major factor relating to phenomenal media attention. However, according to him, the real champions will be ultimately determined by the quality of their online teaching, rather than simply by the brand. He finds the claims to revolutionising pedagogic practice as "pretty old hat". Promoters of MOOCs, such as Daphne Koller of Coursera, have claimed that the spread of MOOCs could mean the "end" of Universities as we know them. Tony Bates has a neat critique of this and a few other such exaggerated and simplistic claims.
Can MOOCs contribute to the expansion of higher education in developing countries? Given that MOOCs are in an early stage of development, it might be difficult to judge their relevance for developing country higher learning institutions in general and open and distance learning (ODL) institutions in particular. Tony Bates questions the attitude of elite universities that are projecting MOOCs as a form of online philanthropy. Are MOOCs fad or fantasy? A new form of consumerism or brand imperialism? What really are MOOCs? A business model or a revolutionary pedagogy?
From our perspective, MOOC, is simply a platform; it is a platform to organise an event. When a course is offered on this platform, it is still an event where participation is free and open. People enter easily and exit as they like as in ODL. MOOCs, as constructed by the Big Three (Coursera, Udacity and edX), has a suite of technologies nicely blended to serve the purpose of an event organisation. Examples are the software applications for learner registration, for tracking progress and participation (including results from assessments), video/audio streaming and spaces for social networking. All these are nicely engineered to work together, enabling the smooth flow of data across varied applications. This is something that standard learning management systems (LMSs) will not do. In this case, tools, techniques and analytical services from Big Data technologies assist the educators and platform managers to arrive at elaborate and meaningful inferences from vast quantities of data that are captured from a host of activities that learners and teachers engage in. This is the core of MOOC technologies.
ODL institutions in developing countries have generally faced challenges in managing such technologies, even for small numbers. Their technology deployment is often deficient even when this is mission critical and cost-efficient. The reason is that institutional leadership and governance structures often cannot handle disruptive innovations such as online provision. MOOCs are a significant advancement in the online learning paradigm, provide a new opportunity in experimentation without immediately upsetting present arrangements. The core interest for ODL institutions may be extensively testing the viability and usefulness of select MOOC technologies for learner profile and data management and basic delivery and assessment techniques. EdX is emerging as an Open Source platform while Google has announced the availability of its Course Builder (a MOOC platform) as an Open Source development platform (inside the Google environment, of course). It would be useful to foster an alliance of developing country ODL and higher learning institutions to engage in collaborative, joint development to adapt an Open Source MOOC platform to suit the specific and contextual needs of such institutions.
Developing countries have by now a record of adapting and scaling up technologies developed for clientele in developed countries. Car phones were developed in North America and Europe in the late 1970s and a car phone often cost as much as a car. Two decades later, this resulted in a rapid and massive expansion of mobile telephony in developing countries. The business models and policies that contributed to this expansion were not identical with those in the countries of origin of this technology.
On the open educational resources (OER) front, an analysis of full-course OER at post-secondary level in Commonwealth countries reveals that just over two-thirds of all such OER come from developing countries. This shows that OER, which originated from elite institutions in the United States have developed their own trajectory in the developing world. Perhaps MOOCs will assume a different avatar as they enter other worlds.
What do developing countries really need? A quantum increase in the age participation rates in higher education. First, MOOCs can become a viable option as connectivity increases and open source platforms are adapted and deployed. But qualifications and credits will be key. Second, developing world institutions can modify the MOOC model to offer more blended approaches and better learner support services towards degrees and diplomas. Third, the research results from the pioneers in MOOCs will provide excellent data for developing world institutions to review their teaching/learning practices for better quality and outcomes.
MOOC is an emerging phenomenon. It may be too early to separate the wheat from the chaff! But stakeholders in the developing world need to deploy 'all means necessary' as they seek to close the cognitive divide.
