Back To School Month

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: BPOC on MOOC (Big Person on Campus on Massive Open Online Courses)

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: anyone with a thirst for knowledge

Consultant Usage: for self-development and referrals for clients

What’s it about? This is back to school month.  I have been excited and jazzed about the growing quantity and quality of online learning.  In my first post on the topic I referred to some of my links as Online Learning 2.0.  I thought I made up that phrase (well I did make it up) but as usual I am behind the learning curve.  This 2.0 level has been known for about a year as MOOC – Massive Open Online Courses.

MOOC are university/college level courses.  The generally acknowledged leader at the moment is Coursera, reviewed by me 2 weeks ago.  Just getting into the act is a Harvard-MIT-Berkeley coalition (also reviewed recently).  Both of these have two things in common.  They present complete university level courses and they are totally free.

There are some other learning models emerging.  I will get to them in another post.  But for now I would like to focus on the concept.  Probably the most important point is that these courses get to people who would otherwise never have the opportunity to study at this level or with these excellent professors.  This point has already been well documented.  A second idea which has not yet been fully explored is how these courses may affect the cost of a college education.  With costs rising faster than people’s ability to pay, “what if” down the road some of these online classes could be substituted for on campus classes and thus lowering the total cost for students?  What has not been written about (that I can find) is the continuing education possibilities for those of us over-the-hill (well, standing on the hill looking down).  Seniors will be the big winners as MOOC develop.

There are dangers ahead.  Some will attack this model of learning, claiming it is no substitute for a real campus experience.  They are right, except that these early entries make no such claim and are trying to reach folks who can’t get to campus.  It is aimed at those who want an education, not a degree.

There are also a whole bunch of entrepreneurs looking at how to turn these and future sites into profit centers.  This is a problem that already plagues the campus environment.  Let me tell a quick personal story.  I was an adjunct professor at the USC Graduate School of Business (as it was then known) in the early ‘80’s when I had a clash with the Dean of the school over a student’s grade.  The facts of the case are not relevant.  It boiled down to a clear difference in philosophy.  I maintained that the number one priority is quality education.  The Dean maintained that the number one priority is business and the Graduate School of Business was first and foremost a profit-center.  End of discussion.

This is a dilemma that will soon have to be addressed in the MOOC world.

If you have any interest in this topic at all, please take some time to read some of the following main page and short articles at The Chronicle of Higher Education. The front page discusses “The courses raise questions about the future of teaching, the value of a degree, and the effect technology will have on how colleges operate.”

Teaching to the World From Central New Jersey is an absolute must read (4.5 minutes) from a teachers perspective.  This Princeton professor proves once again that a good teacher will always learn more than his/her students.

Before You Jump on the Bandwagon … by MIT Professor Alison Byerly looks at the WIIIFM (what is in it for me) for universities.  She raises some very important, legitimate, and frankly, scary issues that need to be addressed by the institutions participating, or thinking about participating in MOOC.

Kevin Carey, the director of the education-policy program at the New America Foundation, writes in his article Into the Future With MOOC’s that “the future is so clearly one of universal access to free, high-quality, impeccably branded online courses that their presence can be simply assumed. The interesting questions now revolve around financing, quality assurance, and—most important—credit.”

I will have more to write on this topic over the next few weeks.  It is big.  It is important.

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.