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The Education Apocalypse: No Zombies Accepted.

The Education Apocalypse: No Zombies Accepted.

by Kathy Seaton

The End is NearEnrolling now. No tuition. MIT. Harvard. Stanford. Yale. The University of California. And this certainly isn’t the basis of a new episode of The Walking Dead.

The frightening truth is that the cost of higher education continues to rise, with student debt exceeding $1 trillion. But it’s clear, based on the interest of top-tier universities, that free is the new game in town. So run toward the university, because it’s not dead by any means.

Enter MOOCs. Much has been written on the subject of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Some say that MOOCs are the future of higher education, while others simply don’t believe that they have any place in traditional education. For all of those doubters, the numbers tell real story about the current state of academia. The world can’t accommodate all of the students in need of higher education at brick and mortar colleges and universities. If it could, then 2 universities, enrolling 30,000 students each, would need to be built each week to house all of those students. So can brick and mortar institutions continue without the help of technology?

What we do know is that MOOCs help students—plain and simple. For a universe that lacks access to education, MOOCs can help bridge the gap. Benjamin Burt might have said it best, “True prosperity is the result of well placed confidence in ourselves and our fellow man.” Shouldn’t we all believe in the altruistic notion of higher education? Shouldn’t we want ourselves and the generations that follow us to have an excellent academic experience? Indeed we should. We should believe in the notion that anyone, can learn anything, anytime—for free.

Let’s be real, MOOCs won’t solve the worlds’ problems with education. But, they have a good chance at relieving the bottlenecks that exist in higher education. What many don’t realize is that MOOCs can be combined with traditional classroom learning in ways that were never imagined. MOOCs can help a student that is in need, or struggling with a subject, or needs another view on a topic for better understanding. The reality is that a significant percentage of our population needs to attain a degree to be productive in society.

Whether you believe in MOOCs or not, some points just can’t be disputed. The so-called failure of MOOCs to disrupt higher education isn’t based on the quality of the courses themselves, because many are very good and university investment in them is making them even better. MOOCs provide access to world-class professors at an unbeatable price. 

I myself was wary about MOOCs. So I did my research, took a few courses, and found that MOOCs can be useful in many ways. 

The 5 Truths About MOOCs Exposed.

MOOCs are online courses. By definition, MOOCs are free, have little instructor supervision, and students don’t receive individual attention from teachers. MOOCs offer the opportunity for tens of thousands of people to enroll online for a series of courses that provides lecture videos, assignments, and forums for class discussion. MOOCs are real online courses for sev­eral reasons:

  • They’re derived from credit-bearing courses at the undergrad­uate level;
  • Most MOOCs are so well designed that the pathway to learning is evident for most students; and,
  • Much attention is being paid to the granting of credit for MOOCs and therefore they might serve in place of online courses for some students.

Its clear through open education will expand into degree and academic credit through MOOCs.

MOOCS will not replace teaching. Instead, they can enhance teaching and provide access to learners around the world. MOOCs are created, not instruct­ed, by professors and instructors. Highly motivated students may be able to mas­ter the material of MOOCs just as they might learn from books on their own. So far, the majority of MOOC students have been sophisticated consumers of higher education — those already possessing a degree. This is not typical in higher edu­cation because we know most students prefer the guidance of an instructor.

MOOCs really are free. And the intention is real. The notion behind MOOCs is to provide information and knowledge at no cost. And that’s exactly why in the early stages of open education that MIT opened its entire library of undergraduate and graduate courses to the masses for free.

MOOCs are permanent. The rapid expansion of MOOCs and MOOC providers, particularly those as­sociated with higher education institu­tions, will divide the market even as the market grows. MOOCs will move from general education and undergraduate courses to special courses for defined audiences. While some of those audi­ences will be very large, the range of choice within any particular market will increase and diversify among subjects, providers, and formats.

MOOCs will indeed disrupt higher educa­tion. However, they will threaten the status quo. In fact, MOOCs are more likely to help colleges and universities improve learning by providing feedback on ef­fective learning practices, student-learning outcomes, and teaching methods. MOOCs will accelerate learn­ing innovation and provide new learning research from its students—which will make for a better academic product all around.

While the future of higher education is uncertain, it is clear that MOOCs are here to stay. Don’t drag your body to the class. Stay home. Fire up the laptop. And take a MOOC at home. I’m sure you’ll find they’re not part of the apocalyptic hype. That’s for The Walking Dead.