By Sandra Peter. AS Australian universities embrace free online courses and partner with world leading massive open online course providers such as Coursera and edX, they are not only changing how education is delivered, but potentially challenging the very meaning of, and what constitutes, learning and an education.
The recent report from the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre describes MOOC platforms as the “iTunes of higher education” (with laptops and tablets as the iPods for learning), revolutionising how education is developed and made available to learners.
This analogy is useful for considering a potentially more fundamental shift in the meaning of learning and education, akin to the one iTunes as a platform together with iPods as devices set off in music: the way we thought of ‘good music’. Whereas in the 80s and 90s music was about the quality of the sound – the more expensive the equipment (speakers, amplifiers, cables etc), the better the sound – in 2001 it became accessibility, convenience and choice (iTunes and the iPod). Good music became synonymous with accessible music. More...

By Sean Corcorran. There is a tsunami rising in higher education. In fact, it is finally starting to crest. The chatter around the need to improve education in the U.S. has been going on for decades, but it looks like something is finally going to happen. Why? Because the business model of higher education is truly under attack.  Surviving this attack will require the reinvention of education, so that today's students can achieve their true potential, and succeed in college...and in life.
This re-invention will require 1) an improved business model that makes colleges more efficient and accessible, 2) more effective teaching methods that truly engage and inspire students, and 3) learning environments designed for the 21st century, not the 19th as many still appear today. We need to look at the learning experience more holistically if we are to improve learning outcomes, and treat pedagogy, technology, and learning spaces (both physical and virtual) as an "ecosystem." More...

By Keith Devlin. Politicians who saw MOOCs as a means to cut the cost of higher education are having to think again after two high-profile initiatives in California recently came to a crashing halt.
The more publicized trainwreck, though arguably the lesser significant of the two, was the partnership between San Jose State University and for-profit MOOC provider Udacity, initiated last January in a blaze of publicity by Udacity co-founder Sebastian Thrun and California governor Jerry Brown. The public-private agreement called for Udacity to support three remedial classes developed and run by professors at San Jose State.
The potential prize was big: The course fee was a mere $150 per student -- covered by foundation grants for the initial trial -- a fraction of the cost of a regular course. But when the results came in, the euphoria quickly evaporated. The passing rates were 29 percent, 44 percent and 51 percent, respectively, much lower than hoped for. As a result, the university and Udacity have announced that no further such courses would be offered until they had analyzed what went wrong. More...

By Tony Bates. Peters, M. (2013) Massive Open Online Courses and Beyond: the Revolution to Come Truthout, August 17.
This is an excellent, comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of where MOOCs are going. More...
Also see: What happened in online learning in the summer? – 1 and What happened in online learning in the summer? – 3.

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...

By Kaysi Holman. Move Over MOOC!  Here Comes the SPOC! This Self-Paced Open Courseware (SPOC) is free, to anyone, anywhere, anytime! Featuring two of Duke’s leading professors—behavioral economist Dan Ariely and teachnology and education innovator Cathy Davidson--#Duke Surprise is a fully open series of seven “mini-courses” that allow you to learn as little or much as you want about:

• Self control
• Relativity and Defaults
• Obedience, Evil, and Resistance
• Race, Prejudice, and Political Correctness
• Social Proof
• Gender and Success
• Honesty and Dishonesty. More...

Justin Pope de Bloomberg Businessweek tomo y terminó un curso MOOC de MIT, en este artículo nos resume su experiencia, ventajas y posibilidades de mejora del modelo actual que define estos cursos. Resalta ventajas en velocidad, contenido, y acceso masivo, mientras levanta advertencias sobre la falta de flexibilidad en tiempo.
Por Justin Pope, escrito para Bloomberg Businessweek Agosto 3 2013
Esther Duflo, uno de los dos economistas estrella de MIT que dictan el curso MOOC (cursos abiertos masivos en línea por sus siglas en inglés) que estoy tomando sobre pobreza mundial, es una mujer de habla rápida, a quien difícilmente se puede seguir el paso, especialmente cuando el tema es matemática.
Su compañera dictando el curso es Abhijit Banerjee hablaba tan despacio que era casi imposible no dedicarse a revisar facebook en sus pausas.
No se asusten: Una de las innovaciones tecnológicas más sofisticadas de estos cursos gratuitos ofrecidos por universidades de élite es también una de las más útiles: Puedes acelerar las clases hasta un factor de 1,5x, des acelerarlas hasta un 0,75x o escucharlas a velocidad natural. Més...

L’organisation d’un MOOC demande beaucoup de temps ainsi qu’une grande diversité de compétences, allant de la pédagogie à la gestion de projet. Dans ces conditions, on comprend qu’il soit difficile voire impossible d’en organiser seul. Il faut donc recruter une petite équipe motivée et compétente. Et c’est là que commencent les ennuis. Qui recruter ? Comment rémunérer les uns et les autres, à commencer par les enseignants ? Faut-il mettre des doctorants à contribution, des étudiants ? Retour sur le véritable casse-tête auquel font face les établissements qui se lancent dans l’organisation de MOOC. Suite...

La première session du MOOC Gestion de Projet s’est terminée il y a maintenant quatre mois. Elle a soulevé de nombreuses questions. Nous nous proposons dans ce billet de discuter de l’une des plus récurrentes: Qui étaient les participants ? Quels étaient leur niveau d’étude, leur profession, leur nationalité ? Parmi les 3600 personnes qui se sont inscrites, pas moins de 2346 personnes ont répondu au questionnaire démographique que nous avons mis en place, soit la quasi-totalité des participants actifs, ce qui est relativement exceptionnel pour un MOOC. En général, sur les plates-formes américaines, seuls quelques pourcents des participants y répondent. Cette étude démographique du cours est donc l’une des plus précises en son genre…. Retour sur la question de la démographie du MOOC. Suite...

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Inge Ignatia de Waard was born in 1967 in Antwerp, Belgium. She is currently researching mobile learning and MOOCs at the Open University of the United Kingdom. She has a background in IT and pedagogy (studied at Athabasca University, Canada) and has been an international public speaker, addressing audiences across continents on the subject of online, MOOC and mobile learning. Writing has been a consistent factor, producing articles for magazines and journals such as the Learning Solutions magazine, as well as authoring research papers and chapters.
Her professional path has been eclectic, following the grand tradition of all students that do not fit universal formal education ... only to return to it later in life. Past professions include: preparing food for film crews (resulting in startlingly new dishes that surpass tasteful palettes), cleaning offices (using the dust-under-carpet method frequently) and waiting on tables for artists and art lovers in a famous Belgian theater company (being renowned for having a morning temper matching even the most fierce of actors) ... after quick iterations as a photographer, film critic and stand-up comedian, Inge finally found a place where she could voice opinions openly while lobbying for equal rights. The Vrouwen Overleg Komitee willingly employed her, which got Inge started on organizing big events, networking across political parties and online learning while using technology to disseminate content, as well as connect with peers.
As part of a midlife crisis she sought to improve the world, so Inge changed jobs and started to work for one of the finest research centers on tropical diseases: the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium. After years of engaging, setting up and supporting mHealth and online projects, she decided to enroll as a full time PhD student at the renowned Open University of United Kingdom. Now she is dedicated to write up low-cost eBooks on the subject of technology enhanced learning.