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?