MOOCs can provide better access to students who might be shut out of courses that fill up, or to students at remote campuses which don’t offer the full panel of courses that the flagship university campus does.  In this case, MOOCs could allow more students to finish their degree in four years or less.

What is the value of HRSU (Highly Regarded State University) in a MOOC world?  What value do we bring to learning when it’s all out there?

Barriers?  It’s all about RISK (and change) – financial, pedogogical, faculty engagement/time, public perceptions, institutional culture…. the list is endless.

If I have an employee that’s completed a MOOC, how do I know she/he learned anything?  (A cynic would say the same thing about how we award grades in traditional courses 🙂 but it’s a bigger issue with MOOCs.)

Why do we all teach an introductory course in Statics or Physics or Calculus (or Econ, Psychology, Biology, etc.)?  Why not get the best teachers in the country/world to teach them as a MOOC – the content is amazingly similar across all our institutions.  We could focus our courses on those things in these areas that we want to tailor or extend t…[Read more]

At this point, there is value in getting your feet wet – experimenting and getting experience.  But is jumping in with both feet worth it?

Also, ideological benefit: if a university’s mission is to extend education (especially in their special niche) to the world, MOOCs align with this mission .

MOOCs seem to be a good fit with the “land grant mission” – educating the “masses.”  This is just a new tool with which to do it.

Branding, marketing.

On campus students benefit from access to online materials; distant campuses get access to information, materials that they may not otherwise get.

On campus face2face students can be emboldened by seeing remote students ask questions and get them answered; can increase class participation of on campus students, enrich the classes.

Change value to universities to add faculty

Regarding, how to assess the quality of a MOOC:  may place more burden for determining what was learned on the employer, and their ability to test candidates for desired competency.

one example of best practice: When a course is developed, create a list of objectives for what you wish the students to be able to do when they complete the course.

1) Grow enrollment, lower cost, lower tuition

Ideally, you make math and science more accessible to the general public.

1) What defines a best practice re MOOCS?

2) Convince faculty of value

3) All innovation has cost implications

One of the greatest value is to the practicing engineer through reduced cost for an equivalent education.

MOOCs can meet an identified skill gap or competency gap in industry employees.

The low/no cost could be very advantageous to employers, since they often pay the cost of continuing education of their employees.

Employers need to know that a course/program teaches their employees what the employer needs to know.

MOOC format…[Read more]

Value of MOOCs to practicing engineers is that it provides a low cost means of continuing education that is flexible and may not be tied to their employer.

Value to employer can include the recognition of having a support from a recognized university for an employee’s online program.