The 3 Ms, quality and instructional design of MOOCs

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The 3 Ms, quality and instructional design of MOOCs
Sui Fai John Mak, Learner Weblog, February 26, 2013
A writer in the Association of Governing Boards magazine gets to the point of online learning in this article: Mission, MOOCs, & Money. It's a reasonably good overview (though I would question awarding somebody working in the 1970s the title of "father of the MOOC" (for the simple reason there was no online). Sui Fai John Mak, writing in the context of the Governing Boards article, focuses on the major question the boards face:

• Why are we online? Is the movement to or expansion of online education consistent with the institutional mission? Does and will it serve and advance the institutional mission? Or is the key issue in the discussion about online education—including any conversations about MOOCs—money?
• How do we assess quality—that of our own online offerings and those of others, including the MOOCs?
• What will it take to achieve our objectives in terms of online learning. More...