MOOCs: A first-hand experience on EDC MOOC and a speculation of their future impact in Higher Education

Almpanis, Timos. MOOCs: A first-hand experience on EDC MOOC and a speculation of their future impact in Higher Education. Dialogue: Journal of Solent Learning Community, (In Press)

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Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – a term coined by Dave Cormier back in 2008 when the first experimental MOOC ran - came to prominence in 2012 with the launch of Coursera, EdX and Udacity platforms in the United States. Most often MOOCs are short courses with duration varied between a couple of weeks to a couple of months, and at the moment, they do not provide academic credit, but some do provide a certificate of completion or statement of accomplishment. MOOCs are currently free for participants and are funded by public and/or private sources. However, there is speculation that in the near future, Universities involved may profit by providing certification to successful participants and by building hybrid courses around MOOCs that carry academic credit (Lederman 2013, Young 2012). This short article summarises my personal reflections from participating in a MOOC and provides a brief evaluation of the connectivist MOOC (cMOOC) learning design. Following that, MOOCs’ future sustainability in general is discussed and a speculation of their future impact in HE is attempted. In lieu of a conclusion, important questions raised by MOOCs and the ways they may impact Higher Education are provided, with an aim to open up the discussion around MOOCs to include their socio-political dimension alongside its pedagogical one.

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