As citizens of the digital world traverse further toward technological ubiquity, many questions of usefulness and necessity of informational advancements have been raised. In particular, as technology begins to seep through the hallowed halls of universities, controversy has arisen surrounding the costs and benefits of their presence. Though substantial evidence has been collected implicating technology in the deterioration of information retention and academic performance, the unrelenting force of technology forces constant consideration and debate.
MOOCs provides solutions to many shortfalls of higher education
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) took the world of higher education by storm. With the cost of college, a free, quality education grows increasingly attractive to those wishing to enter an increasingly high tech work force. MOOCs, complete with open video lectures, collaborative environments, and certifications of achievement, have offered just that.
The inception of MOOCs was projected to completely revolutionize the college eduation
In striving to disseminate a college education to the masses, they aim to topple traditional brick-and-mortar institutions as the principle source of expertise. They have been hailed as the innovation possessing the greatest "potential to lift more people out of poverty". Observers have deigned them the future of higher education and academic game changers. Shortly after unveiling MOOC front-runner Udacity, founder and Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun proclaimed that in the next half of a century, all but ten of the most esteemed universities of the world will have been supplanted by online courses.
Despite this, MOOCs have abysmally low completion rates
However, despite abundant fanfare, MOOCs have largely failed to provide an effective substitute for traditional college learning. The completion rates of MOOCs have been abysmally low across the board. Katy Jordan, doctoral student at the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University in the United Kingdom found an average completion rate that dipped below seven percent. Though the thousands of students that enroll for each course may permit the abysmal completion rates to reach sizable absolute values, the objective rate of completion reflects poorly upon MOOCs' abilities to effectively educate the public, one of the original goals of the open data model.
MOOCs have largely failed to meet the expectations of its user base
The lack of completion did not come as a result of the online course's extreme rigor; the courses typically lack the large scale tests, papers, and interactions that compose traditional curricula. Indeed, the greatest cause of withdrawal is not failure but quitting. Along with a self described lack of time availability, the top reason (29 percent) cited for voluntary termination is the failure of the course to meet expectation.
MOOCs are built on a cooperative, peer-based form of collective learning
Students of MOOCs have consistently expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of organization within the course. MOOCs, oftentimes constructed without the guidance of pedagogy experts, rely heavily on "connectivism", a peer-based form of cooperative learning. Theory states that the efforts of many working in tandem to learn will result in a network of support and guidance that will ultimately have students teaching students. As teaching complements active learning in the integration of knowledge, particularly in the less-didactic environment offered by peer mentorship, the model provides for a self-sufficient system of education.
The peer-led information offered by MOOCs lacks the refinement of traditional classes
However, reality is less kind to students of MOOCs. Like the greater internet sphere, the cooperative learning environment is inundated with superfluous or fallacious information. Even when the information has recognized veracity, students oftentimes have trouble navigating through the bevy of unorganized ideas that confront them. This is compounded by the fact that the natural ethos of the student mentors comes far short of that granted to professors. Though the information given by peers may be abundant and true, they could still be overlooked by the dizzied student of the MOOCs who, without the aid of a traditional professor, lose out significantly in the education process.
MOOCs have yet to capture a significant chunk of the undergraduate student population
In addition to student aversion to the programs, MOOCs have further failed to usurp universities by failing to capture the college student demographic. Undergraduate students are sparse among the ranks of MOOC students. 80 percent of MOOC users have earned their two or four year degree. 44 percent of them have completed graduate level courses. The high amount of prior education in the MOOC demographic suggests that MOOCs act more as accessories to prior knowledge rather than core sources of information. As such, MOOCs would be hard-pressed to void classrooms in their current incarnation and would thus be ineffective as an improvement in higher education.
In practice, MOOCs have demonstrated significant deficiencies in functionality and popularity
In response to the limited appeal of MOOCs, even Thrun, the flag-bearer of MOOCs, has revised his hopes for the future of MOOCs and has begun the process of re-configuring Udacity to better complement a strong college education. Indeed, the free and open model of learning has also demonstrated financial limitations. Bar the continued support of colleges or alternative monetization, the MOOCs will gradually wither under the financial strain of operation. The latter being more than likely, MOOCs will again raise the financial barriers to education that they sought so hard to tear down.
MOOCs began as an ambitious project to extend the reach of education beyond poverty and distance. However, the digital translation of college courses has proved to be incomplete and poorly implemented. The limited scope and appeal of MOOCs have earned them membership among the growing ranks of technological ventures that have failed to enhance the classroom environment.
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