University Provosts Express Skepticism over MOOCs

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation recently released a position paper on MOOCs and higher education written by fifteen university provosts. The paper expresses the provosts' skepticism of MOOCs, calling into question the need to partner with external providers, saying “while new and cost effective technological capabilities make certain changes in higher education possible, it does not necessarily follow that such changes are desirable, or would be endorsed or utilized by our existing students, faculty, or community members. Nor does it mean that we fully grasp the costs and business models that might surround new strategies for broadly disseminating course content.” 
The provosts further questioned the general effectiveness of MOOCs explaining that the ability for MOOCs to technically reaching hundreds of thousands of participants “is not, in and of itself, a means for extending educational opportunity to millions of potential ‘students.’ ” Read more...