From Disruption to Innovation: Thoughts on the Future of MOOCs

MOOCs have been heralded by some as disruptive of the higher education sector, but the reality is that they are examples of business rather than educational innovation. By enabling universities to focus on global scale and reach as they navigate the digital environment, current MOOCs largely sustain...

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Main Author: Sherman Young
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) 2018-11-01
Series:Вопросы образования
Subjects:
Online Access:https://vo.hse.ru/article/view/15611
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author Sherman Young
author_facet Sherman Young
author_sort Sherman Young
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description MOOCs have been heralded by some as disruptive of the higher education sector, but the reality is that they are examples of business rather than educational innovation. By enabling universities to focus on global scale and reach as they navigate the digital environment, current MOOCs largely sustain existing learning practices rather than force pedagogical reconfiguration. Implementations to date have largely focussed on content delivery from superstar professors with little emphasis on the real needs of twenty-first century learners. We have reached a stage when all of our educational approaches need to be better suited for a new information ecology that has demonstrably different characteristics from the past. Information scarcity has given way to ubiquity and learners need the appropriate skills to thrive in a digital life and career—creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication. Whilst real innovation to address these challenges is already happening in both fully online and blended offerings at some institutions, they are not so common in the MOOC space. This paper argues that MOOCs offer an opportunity to truly disrupt learning at scale and become exemplars for real educational innovation.
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spelling doaj.art-de03f31e402141bc820793151e13bda72023-02-14T12:05:01ZengNational Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE)Вопросы образования1814-95452412-43542018-11-014214310.17323/1814-9545-2018-4-21-4315611From Disruption to Innovation: Thoughts on the Future of MOOCsSherman Young0Macquarie UniversityMOOCs have been heralded by some as disruptive of the higher education sector, but the reality is that they are examples of business rather than educational innovation. By enabling universities to focus on global scale and reach as they navigate the digital environment, current MOOCs largely sustain existing learning practices rather than force pedagogical reconfiguration. Implementations to date have largely focussed on content delivery from superstar professors with little emphasis on the real needs of twenty-first century learners. We have reached a stage when all of our educational approaches need to be better suited for a new information ecology that has demonstrably different characteristics from the past. Information scarcity has given way to ubiquity and learners need the appropriate skills to thrive in a digital life and career—creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication. Whilst real innovation to address these challenges is already happening in both fully online and blended offerings at some institutions, they are not so common in the MOOC space. This paper argues that MOOCs offer an opportunity to truly disrupt learning at scale and become exemplars for real educational innovation.https://vo.hse.ru/article/view/15611innovationmoocdigital agedisruptionconnectivismnetworksilicon valleycurricular designxmooccmooc
spellingShingle Sherman Young
From Disruption to Innovation: Thoughts on the Future of MOOCs
Вопросы образования
innovation
mooc
digital age
disruption
connectivism
network
silicon valley
curricular design
xmooc
cmooc
title From Disruption to Innovation: Thoughts on the Future of MOOCs
title_full From Disruption to Innovation: Thoughts on the Future of MOOCs
title_fullStr From Disruption to Innovation: Thoughts on the Future of MOOCs
title_full_unstemmed From Disruption to Innovation: Thoughts on the Future of MOOCs
title_short From Disruption to Innovation: Thoughts on the Future of MOOCs
title_sort from disruption to innovation thoughts on the future of moocs
topic innovation
mooc
digital age
disruption
connectivism
network
silicon valley
curricular design
xmooc
cmooc
url https://vo.hse.ru/article/view/15611
work_keys_str_mv AT shermanyoung fromdisruptiontoinnovationthoughtsonthefutureofmoocs