Ferran, C. (2014). MOOCs Will Not Replace Traditional Academia. In proceedings of the Academy of Business Research Conference in San Antonio, TX
ABSTRACT
MOOC are posed in the popular press as a replacement for traditional academia. They can serve many more students than the traditional academy at a fraction of the cost. Government agencies are looking at them as potential saviors to the high budgets needed by traditional academy. Some faculty are scared of these potential replacement and alone or through their University Faculty Senate have issued warnings and disclaimers. The very limited faculty to student interaction is described as unacceptable. The high attrition rate has been used to discredit their usefulness. And the lack of standards makes it very difficult to define or analyze.
However, MOOC are nothing more than Textbook 3.0. First we had the textbook and people who could read could then learn new knowledge by simply reading the textbooks. Not long ago the textbook received a considerable update with hypertext. Hypertext eBooks became Textbook 2.0. eBooks can be mere images of the plain textbook or annotated, highly hyperlinked, include audio and video and be updated continuously becoming far more useful. The textbook industry was hit and is struggling with keeping its business model viable. Now textbook 3.0 (MOOCs) includes activities, exercises, and social media that connects the user to a community of thousands of other who are also trying to learn the same subject matter.
Just like in the past, those highly motivated and capable will be able to learn the material by themselves. But the majority of the apprentices will continue to need a master –a professor– to lead them in the learning process. Moreover, academia provides much more than knowledge. The young apprentice not only acquires the knowledge from the master but the degree (certification) from the institution, and the social growth along with their peers. MOOCs cannot provide all that academia provides but it will certainly raise questions like why is academia one of the few institutions that still continues to self-audit (provide the knowledge but also test if the knowledge was really transferred).
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