What's Next? After the MOOC Hype

The Hype that Ate Itself

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…but what has it left us?

The system of higher ed is in shift

Two Solitudes

Media Discourse

•  Disruption •  Replacement •  Transformation •  Tsunami •  Free

Practitioners’ Discourse

•  Connection •  Pedagogy •  Hybrid options •  Institution-specific •  Fit to purpose

“we have a lousy product”

Pandora’s Box

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1. The ‘education is broken’

refrain

2. A consensus that massive student debt is not tenable

3. A recognition that education as a system CAN be unbundled

…and may need to rebundle in

new, unfamiliar ways

4. A discourse of solutions and delivery

5. A decline in public funding

6. Openness to online

Media discourse around

MOOCs is not equipped to actually grapple with

ANY of these issues

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But unicorns do not die.

MOOCs embody digital practices Harness & contribute to knowledge abundance Are participatory Are networked Are distributed Generate knowledge & connections that extend beyond course Share the processes of knowledge work, not just the products

Established power interests & marketization

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“When colleges and universities become a market, there is no incentive to teach what customer would rather not know.

When colleges are in the business of making customers comfortable, we are

all poorer for it.”

- T. MacMillan Cottom, Slate, Dec 2013

Behind door #1…

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Behind door #2…& #3 & #4

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What counts as education? Who is it for? Who is it meant

to benefit? What are its goals?  

We need to have these conversations in public

What’s your vision?

Thank you. @bonstewart