Running

head: THE MASSIVE OPEN CONTENT COURSE

The Massive Open Online Courses Impact on Education

John D. Lancett
EDCI 750: Learning Technologies
Kansas State University
Dr. Clark Harris
April 29, 2014

THE MASSIVE OPEN CONTENT COURSE

The Massive Open Content Course

Introduction
There are as many different interpretations of what makes a good educational course, as
there are theories about how to provide efficient and unilateral information to people in unique
learning circumstances. This varied array of ideas and pedagogical approaches has created an
educational system around the world that ranges from dynamic to epically mediocre. At all
levels of the spectrum, from primary school through post secondary there is a need to overcome
this inequity. Institutions of higher learning have traditionally invested heavily in research and
development, facilities and incentive programs to attract both high quality faculty and students.
This investments byproduct is twofold, as it has created amazing results in research and
development and advances in a number of fields while at the same time causing a huge increase
in tuition costs and operating budgets that have made some consider; is going to school worth
the cost? Using a comparison between the average costs of a University of Pennsylvania degree
in Dentistry between 1950 and the 2013-2014 school year, anyone can see that the price of
tuition alone (excluding and tertiary expenses such as room and board or fees) has gone up
from $600 to $66,322 (University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center,
2013). To many prospective students and recent graduates, this cost has proven to be far too
cumbersome for them to take the plunge into higher education. In a recent article that appeared
on May 7, 2013 in the Business Insider, Max Nisen reports on an interview with Yahoo COO
Dan Rosensweig, he states "We want to set off an alarm bell," Recent graduates are telling
you that you have to change aggressively and faster. I see lots of institutions moving in the
right direction though not all of them but we need faster change (para. 14)." These so
called alarm bells have sent shock waves through the education world and have, in a sense,

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ushered in a new type of reform and a breakthrough idea of sorts in the form of MOOCs
(Massive Open Online Courses). MOOCs are revolutionary in the sense that they are
essentially free for anyone with a computer, Internet access and time to spend. However,
MOOCs have created quite a stir after exploding on the scene only a few short years ago. Much
of the praise for this innovative technology comes from the open nature of the courses and the
fact that major collegiate institutions such as Harvard and MIT have provided monetary and
proprietary support to many of the main sites. Even with this support, there has been a
consistent amount of negative discourse in regards to the way in which MOOCs present and
assess information in recent months. Therefore, this paper will examine the concept of MOOCs
and give a brief background to their introduction in the education scene, give real world
examples of how educators around the world are attempting to use them in various levels of
education and evaluate the tools effectiveness and merit for future implementation.
MOOC Background and Creation
The New York Times and writer Laura Pappano, dubbed 2012, The year of the
MOOC, when she titled her article with the same name. This article was one of the first
mainstream news sources to bring the inventions merit to the public forum. Her proclamation
came after four years of relative obscurity for the online teaching tool and in the same year that
the founder of Coursera, a major MOOC provider boasted that his site was, growing faster
than Facebook (para. 2). This statement had proven that MOOCs had finally emerged on the
map of online learning tools and courses. And although MOOCs could be considered
mainstream now, the conception of the term MOOC was originally coined by a group of
Canadian professors that included George Siemens, Dave Cormier, Stephen Downes in 2008
(Kernohan, n.d.). They originally intended the idea to be a collaborative project that would

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tackle big issues in a free and open platform and to a certain extent that is still what some
MOOCs do. However, there has been considerable experimentation in the MOOC model since
its inception. This experimentation coupled with the fact that the technology and the ideology
about best practice are still relatively new and untested has caused many in the education field
to remain skeptical that the technology will make a lasting impact. It also means that the rules
dictating what can be classified as a MOOC are still being written and the end result of those
rewrites is yet to be determined. Collectively, MOOC creators have determined that the key
features of this technology should include some combination of these attributes; free access,
open content, peer-assessment, use of social media and collaborative-networked learning. At
the present time there are two basic terminologies that are being widely recognized as the
standard forms the courses should take. The first has been dubbed the xMOOC, this version of
the open course is characterized by the use of video lectures, which are recorded and or
conducted, live by a university professor most often coming from a highly reputable school
somewhere in the world. Quite often this type of MOOC uses peer assessment model to gauge
the accuracy of student work and most xMOOCs offer the user the option to purchase a
certificate of completion at the end of the course or to simply take the course for personal
knowledge. Since the courses use the lectures of high profile professors they normally require
the students to follow the timeframe set forth by the actual real time course. Some of the
institutions that have adopted this style of courses include Coursera and Edx and other higher
profile providers. Originally, this type of MOOC was a reaction to the critics who said that
there needed to be a more data driven approach to the courses so that learning could be
measured and documented. If xMOOCs are the newest revised version, then the other category
the open courses have been unofficially organized into, dubbed cMOOCs, is the original

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design. This version of the online courses is actually characterized by its intentional lack of
structure, almost making it feel like there really is no classroom style environment present at
all. In addition, the cMOOC makes use of multitudes of social media, blogs and other
collaborative learning environments in order to benefit from peer knowledge in a combined and
joint effort to learn content and come up with answers to large complex issues. The format has
some very appealing aspects for more advanced learners but its retractors say that it can prove
hard to master for more novice/younger users (Kernohan, n.d.). The ideology behind the two
types of ubiquitous courses could not be more different and in reality to only real connection
between them is the fact that they are free, online and offer actual learning experiences for
those that want to experience them outside of the traditional classroom setting.
Philosophy and K-12 Applications
While the philosophy behind the concept of MOOCs is still a long way from concrete,
there are a number of uses that are highly tangible and very pertinent to the discussion that have
been identified. The first use for the open content courses is one that stems from the argument
that students need more skills and content that can be presented to them in ways they can easily
digest. A 2012 report released by the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) summarizes
what we know about undergraduate learning in science and engineering. Across all sciences,
students struggle with fundamental concepts and underlying ideas, at both large and small
spatial and temporal scales (Singer & Bonvillian, 2013). Studies like this have been showing
for years that the current pedagogical approaches that worked in the past have gone by the
wayside. Research demonstrates that problem-solving skills can be developed through
discussion-oriented learning environments where students collaborate, through the use of openended, real-world problems, and through tasks that provide students with prompts and guides.

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These findings must be translated into MOOCs (Singer & Bonvillian, 2013). The opportunity
that MOOCs provide for alternative sources of information can provide an excellent source of
extension for businesses, K-12 schools and institutions of higher learning alike. One area that
has continually been a challenge for the public education sector, in America, is the continued
professional development opportunities for teachers. Too often there have been directives from
the state and federal level to require more coursework for teachers to remain highly qualified
that have come without taking into consideration the difficult nature of the directive itself.
Many of the best professional development tasks need to cover large open-ended educational
questions such as, what are the best most effective assessment strategies, or another example
could be to work on ideas for classroom differentiation. Questions like this take considerable
research and development of classroom practice to master, which is why the open nature of
MOOCs fits the educational professional development model nicely. Many of the most
effective strategies in professional development utilize what Fasimpaur (2013) describes as,
an inquiry-driven approach to online learning. In the Digital Footprints course, participants
explore topics such as social media, digital citizenship, and investigation skills through probing
questions, sharing of experiences, and hands-on projects. In one module, participants shared
experiences related to digital identity and went on to track their own digital footprints online.
They then applied this information to school policies and classroom activities. Teachers can use
this inquiry process in their own classrooms as well (p.12). In addition to all of these features
that MOOCs can provide educators looking for professional development, it can also give
them an open-ended and adjustable time frame to complete the coursework. They can use the
open nature of MOOCs to work on it away from their daily activities and over the course of the
school year, this way they can retain valuable planning time and stay focused on classroom

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instruction. With teachers discovering the benefits of MOOCs for their professional needs,
many have also begun to understand that their students could benefit from the online courses as
well. One area that MOOCs seem a perfect fit for are the Advanced Placement (AP) courses
that have traditionally been offered to high achieving students in high schools across America.
These courses have traditionally been designed to be at the forefront of innovation. In essence
the AP philosophy and structure are meant to provide college level content and experiences to
students in high school, the students even have the opportunity to gain university credit for the
courses they take given that they pass a rigorous examination at the end of the class. The
MOOC model can help to provide not only extended, top notch content but also allow students
to choose courses that can help them expand their knowledge base and gain vital supplemental
knowledge and skills in the process. These motivated students need to be given the opportunity
to take MOOC courses and there are some educators that can foresee them even taking one to
two stand alone MOOCs every semester (Thompson, 2013). This kind of extension will also
help to better prepare students to enter the college world on the right track from their first day
on campus. No longer would students need to take a gamut of undergraduate courses to build
their basic knowledge and skills, in fact in some cases they could start taking higher-level
degree specific classes right from the first day. Of course, this will only be possible if forward
thinking educators adopt a MOOC philosophy and Colleges begin to recognize the MOOC
courses as legitimate substitutions for general education courses. This could have a huge impact
on student loan debt and the number of dropouts that plague the university system around the
world. The entry of MOOCs into the K-12 educational framework should also be viewed with
technology integration in mind and should be used as tool to help student progress

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incrementally. Educators must remember that at this time MOOCs are not suitable, in most
cases to be used as a stand-alone substitute for curriculum design and development.
Global Interaction and Collaboration
What the MOOC platform offers in the way of global interaction may be the most
valuable of its assets to the high school education model. Many of the tools that are out there
for this kind of collaboration today like Skype, FaceTime and others do allow students to
interact but, with time differences and limited time available to them teachers need to find ways
to make the discussion go beyond short-lived talks and interactions (Thompson, 2013).
MOOCs can use their certain brand of collaboration to create communities of learners that can
work together to solve problems and create relationships that go beyond any single subject.
This truly networked learning model is something that many see as the wave of the future and a
very tactile, pertinent reason why secondary schools and teachers should consider adopting the
use of MOOCs sooner rather than later.
Rebuttals and Discontent
As with any new and misunderstood technology or concept there will be those who see
the wisdom in its use right away and others that take longer to adopt and still others that will
reject it completely. There are some in the education world; including the professors and
teaching staff at the San Jose State University in California that are part of the latter groups.
They have helped to provide some insights into why their institution specifically should not
wholeheartedly endorse MOOCs. In a response to the schools president, Mohammad H.
Qayoumi, choice to fully support the introduction of MOOCs into their curriculum. The
facultys union representatives released a statement in which they cite several reasons for SJSU
to reject his proposal.

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In many reports, online education simply increases the "digital divide." Successes in
MOOCs have been reported to be due to the resources available to those who enroll.
Those who do well academically and are better prepared, know the material better, and
have the time to review materials repeatedly are more likely to succeed (2013).
The faculty unions rebuttable has been at the heart of many of the debates that are raging about
the use of MOOCs. Some would say MOOCs are just the latest incarnation of bringing
watered-down versions of culture, knowledge, and learning to a mass audience (Freedman,
2013 para. 11). This of course stems from the argument that technology and the 24-hour news
cycle has already broken down information to such a minute level that there is very little
meaningful content out there today.
What we see as the courses' flaws may well be their strengths, and they have the
potential to carry those strengths to a broader audience than ever before. Problems arise
only when we think of MOOCs as university courses rather than as learning for the
masses (Freedman, 2013 para. 11).
These opinions have some foundation due to the open content nature of the courses
themselves. Open content is a programming philosophy under which programmers and larger
companies make portions of code or whole code platforms available to the public so that others
can create and design independently. MOOCs are using this technology now and the platform
and the code has been provided by Google and its Course-Builder website and Apache 2.0
code. This site allows anyone with the knowledge and desire to create their own MOOCs from
scratch. And while this is a terrific tool for educators or experts alike to create more new and
exciting opportunities for MOOCs it does not lend to the systematic design of courses using
researched and tested educational practices by teachers themselves.

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Conclusion
In whatever way the issues surrounding MOOCs are dissected there seems to be some
commonalities that appear in the opinions of experts and throughout the literature. These
common elements center on the fact that while MOOCs are a very exciting and possibly an
institutional changing technology, they are still somewhat untested. Most scholars agree that
they can currently be used to help educators and students as tools to extend and enrich the
learning that is already taking place, but they are not yet designed with enough research based
educational pedagogy behind them to make them true rivals to traditional college or high
school courses. Yet there remains a certain amount of hope that with the extensive level of
university backing some of the larger MOOCs have that there will be a transformation in the
years to come. Undergraduates and knowledge seekers the world over will be continually
looking to these MOOCs for alternatives to the current educational systems and for some relief
in the amount they are paying for their educations.

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