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Exploring the rise of Massive Open Online Courses, their place in California's community colleges, MOOC fatigue, mainstreaming, and future implications. Discussing MOOC mysteries, learning vs. education, impact, scalability, and concerns. Delve into MOOC basics and major players with insightful analysis on their consequences.
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Responding to Disruptive Forces: MOOCs and Their Consequences Dolores Davison, ASCCC Area B Representative Michelle Pilati, ASCCC President
Overview • MOOC Basics • The Origins of MOOC-fatigue • Status of MOOC-hype • MOOC Mysteries • Do MOOCs have a place in California’s community colleges?
MOOC • Massive • Open • Online • Course
MOOC Basics • Much of the grading is automated or is done by peers, and predictive analytics are used to help students learn material . • Massive discussion boards allow students to ask questions of their classmates. • Free? • “Standard” MOOC – not eligible for financial aid, apportionment, credit (no regular effective contact).
Headlines • The Year of the MOOC • Innovation forces higher ed's hand • Massive free online teaching the next big thing in China • Thousands Sign Up for UT-Austin's First EdX Courses • Can an international online course get you a job?: Massively Open Online Courses may help you land a job in the near future, predict educationists
Headlines • Outsourcing Public Higher Ed (SB 520) • MOOCs: The future of education or mere marketing? • Public universities use MOOCs to steers students to traditional credit pathways/Mainstreaming MOOCs • Earning college credit for MOOCs though prior learning assessment/Making It Count
SB 520 (Steinberg) • Proposes outside private vendor to provide on-line the most in-demand courses that students have difficulty getting. • Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of California (ICAS) comprised of representatives from the UCs, CSUs, and CCCs are opposed.
Sacramento’s Interests • “Efficiency” • End of waitlists (“access”) • Remediation for students prior to enrollment
Learning Vs Education • Many universities now consider offering MOOCs, but they don’t do it for educational reasons. There is no intention to improve society, inclusion or retention, there is no quality consideration or recognition of achievement. It’s the latest marketing move, nothing more. • …once we see MOOCs as a way to offering learning, but not as a system to provide education, these two can happily live together and be even a part of each other.
MOOC Mysteries • How do you sustain a MOOC? • Will MOOCs always be free? • Are MOOCs inherently evil?
Some things to consider as we move on… • Do MOOCs call for additional rethinking of expectations of teaching and learning - beyond current conversations? • Today’sMOOCs offer: • Alternative delivery of instruction - noncredit offerings to a mass, potentially world wide, audience. • Alternative approaches to instruction - a more modest faculty role, expanded reliance on students and peer-to-peer grading and auto-grading. • Alternative evaluation of learning - use of data analytics. Alternative evaluation of learning - use of data analytics. Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)
the NY Times--2 November 2012http://tinyurl.com/moocCCC “Because anyone with an Internet connection can enroll, faculty can’t possibly respond to students individually. So the course design — how material is presented and the interactivity — counts for a lot. As do fellow students. Classmates may lean on one another in study groups organized in their towns, in online forums or, the prickly part, for grading work.”
So, What’s the Big Deal? • 160,000+ students! In one class! • Taught by Stanford, Michigan, Harvard, MIT professors, many of the classes are advertised as being essentially the same as the courses offered at the major universities in the US • There is no cost to enroll in a MOOC • The subjects vary from practical skills (accounting) to advanced courses in medicine and everything in between.
Impact on the CCCs • Credit for MOOCs? • Certification in subject areas or workforce? • Preparation for placement exams? • Bridge to more advanced courses? • Other Opportunities?
Concerns about MOOCs? • Plagiarism • Lack of motivation • Faculty primacy over curriculum • Reporting of competencies • Authentication • Scalability