Flipping the MOOC: networked badges and massive online peer evaluation (MOPE)

By Bruce Caron. Below I will argue that delivering content in the form of massive online courses misses the heart of the target for using online networks for learning. Certainly, MOOCs (in any variety) harness the logic of ubiquitous networked content, but they fail to capture the value of networked evaluation. Open badges with online, peer-based requirement testing can evaluate content understanding delivered in any manner, from one-on-one learning and small discussion conferences, to self-guided content exploration, to MOOCs.
In his new book, Who Owns the Future?, Jaron Lanier warns us about “Siren Servers” (sirens because they appear to offer amazing value for our lives and seduce us by not charging for this) sucking the worth from our futures while externalizing risk and hoarding the aggregated value of our contributions as their own assets. He is talking about Facebook and Amazon and Google and Apple, etc.. In our present economy, he argues, she who owns the server owns the future.  Many of his concerns apply rather starkly to the big MOOC consortia. As he notes, “(h)igher education could be Napsterized and vaporized in a matter of a few short years.” (Lanier, 84). 
In some ways, the picture of higher education as an advanced content delivery system—where MOOCs and other internet services will disintermediate the jobs of faculty by providing content universally—offers a Dorian Gray solution to the problems of accelerating costs in higher education. In this scenario, if you could MOOC-ify as much of the classroom content as possible, you could eliminate a majority of faculty jobs while offering city college students Harvard-level classes.  Higher education would look and work better and brighter and be cheaper and more available than it does now. More...