Based on interviews with almost one hundred of the world's leading educators, policymakers, and businesspeople involved in MOOCs and online learning, the authors investigate the goals of the institutions offering MOOCs and assess the evidence as to whether these goals are being achieved.
A trio of headlines in the Chronicle of Higher Education seem to say it all: in 2013, “A Bold Move Toward MOOCs Sends Shock Waves;” in 2014, “Doubts About MOOCs Continue to Rise,” and in 2015, “The MOOC Hype Fades.” At the beginning of the 2010s, MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, seemed poised to completely revolutionize higher education. But now, just a few years into the revolution, educators’ enthusiasm seems to have cooled. As advocates and critics try to make sense of the rise and fall of these courses, both groups are united by one question: Where do we go from here? Elizabeth Losh has gathered experts from across disciplines—education, rhetoric, philosophy, literary studies, history, computer science, and journalism—to tease out lessons and chart a course into the future of open, online education. Instructors talk about what worked and what didn’t. Students share their experiences as participants. And scholars consider the ethics of this education. The collection goes beyond MOOCs to cover variants such as hybrid or blended courses, SPOCs (Small Personalized Online Courses), and DOCCs (Distributed Open Collaborative Course). Together, these essays provide a unique, even-handed look at the MOOC movement and will serve as a thoughtful guide to those shaping the next steps for open education.
Technology management education and business education are visibly intertwined in the current educational system. Certain efforts that have taken place in the recent past are the interinstitutional discourse around the world. Technology management is a dynamic and evolving profession, driven by changes in technology, globalization, sustainability, and the increasing importance of the service economy. The Handbook of Research on Future Opportunities for Technology Management Education is a comprehensive reference book that enables readers to comprehend the trends in technological changes and the need to orient business education and technology management in workplaces. The book serves to support with the formation and implementation of appropriate policies for technology management. Covering topics such as big data analytics, cloud computing adoption, and massive open online courses (MOOCs), this text is an essential resource for managers, technologists, teachers, executives, instructional designers, libraries, university researchers, students, faculty, and industry taught leaders.
An examination of technology-based education initiatives—from MOOCs to virtual worlds—that argues against treating education as a product rather than a process. Behind the lectern stands the professor, deploying course management systems, online quizzes, wireless clickers, PowerPoint slides, podcasts, and plagiarism-detection software. In the seats are the students, armed with smartphones, laptops, tablets, music players, and social networking. Although these two forces seem poised to do battle with each other, they are really both taking part in a war on learning itself. In this book, Elizabeth Losh examines current efforts to “reform” higher education by applying technological solutions to problems in teaching and learning. She finds that many of these initiatives fail because they treat education as a product rather than a process. Highly touted schemes—video games for the classroom, for example, or the distribution of iPads—let students down because they promote consumption rather than intellectual development. Losh analyzes recent trends in postsecondary education and the rhetoric around them, often drawing on first-person accounts. In an effort to identify educational technologies that might actually work, she looks at strategies including MOOCs (massive open online courses), the gamification of subject matter, remix pedagogy, video lectures (from Randy Pausch to “the Baked Professor”), and educational virtual worlds. Finally, Losh outlines six basic principles of digital learning and describes several successful university-based initiatives. Her book will be essential reading for campus decision makers—and for anyone who cares about education and technology.
During the last decades, our society is witnessing an authentic revolution that, in a dizzying manner has deeply influenced, modified, and transformed the way of life of human beings. This constant and unstoppable revolution is transmuting all areas of our life: social, cultural, personal, labor, economic, training, etc. This new society is characterized by a high generation of knowledge and the constant and fluid processing of information. In this macro-context, the MOOC phenomenon emerged. MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) courses are based on the principles of massive, free access to all materials and resources offered online. This new didactic path can be constituted in an innovative techno-social tendency, especially oriented in the panorama of Higher Education to stimulate university improvement, open opportunities at the same time for education and training or, simply, derive towards a new business model for the universities. In addition to being an entry point for the popularization of science and knowledge, the future possibilities are enormous and are being studied in all their various dimensions. Many initiatives as a result have been developed to implement this new form of education. MOOC Courses and the Future of Higher Education presents the latest research theories and current examples of MOOC courses practices in Higher Education. The chapters represent an extensive assortment of interpretations and practices examples of MOOC courses, across areas as varied as teaching methodologies, instructional innovations, educational technology, etc. This work is structured in three sections, the first one covers the university institution in the knowledge society, the second analyzes the MOOC training proposals, and the third discusses the future role of MOOCs. Technical topics discussed in the book include: The Virtualization of Teaching in Higher EducationTraining and Professional Development at the e-UniversityTaxonomy of MOOCsMOOC: Strengths and WeaknessesMOOCs and the Scientific Community: Challenges and InnovationMOOC PlatformsDirectory of MOOC ResourcesMOOC: Reflections of the Future
Who Killed Higher Education?: Maintaining White Dominance in a Desegregating Era offers a probing and unvarnished look at the causes of the substantial state defunding of public higher education over the last six decades. With the pandemic and cuts to social services, these challenges have only deepened, especially creating real dilemmas for first-generation, minoritized students seeking to complete a college education. Through extensive analysis of trends in public higher education funding, the book documents and lays bare the ways in which elite, neoliberal decision-makers launched a multi-pronged and attack on public higher education. It highlights the confluence of the enrollment of an increasingly diverse cohort of students in college with the efforts of conservative white legislatures to diminish funding support for public higher education. Who Killed Higher Education? is an important resource for students in courses on higher education, and diversity in education. It will also provide instruction for boards of trustees, institutional leaders, faculty and key campus constituencies in developing long-term strategies that ensure the access and success of a diverse and talented student body.
A report from the front lines of higher education and technology that chronicles efforts to transform teaching, learning, and opportunity. Colleges and universities have become increasingly costly, and, except for a handful of highly selective, elite institutions, unresponsive to twenty-first-century needs. But for the past few years, technology-fueled innovation has begun to transform higher education, introducing new ways to disseminate knowledge and better ways to learn—all at lower cost. In this impassioned account, Richard DeMillo tells the behind-the-scenes story of these pioneering efforts and offers a roadmap for transforming higher education. Building on his earlier book, Abelard to Apple, DeMillo argues that the current system of higher education is clearly unsustainable. Colleges and universities are in financial crisis. Tuition rises inexorably. Graduates of reputable schools often fail to learn basic skills, and many cannot find suitable jobs. Meanwhile, student-loan default rates have soared while the elite Ivy and near-Ivy schools seem remote and irrelevant. Where are the revolutionaries who can save higher education? DeMillo's heroes are a small band of innovators who are bringing the revolution in technology to colleges and universities. DeMillo chronicles, among other things, the invention of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) by professors at Stanford and MIT; Salman Khan's Khan Academy; the use of technology by struggling historically black colleges and universities to make learning more accessible; and the latest research on learning and the brain. He describes the revolution's goals and the entrenched hierarchical system it aims to overthrow; and he reframes the nature of the contract between society and its universities. The new institutions of a transformed higher education promise to demonstrate not only that education has value but also that it has values—virtues for the common good.
"The rise of the internet, new technologies, and free and open higher education are radically altering college forever, and this book explores the paradigm changes that will affect students, parents, educators and employers as it explains how we can take advantage of the new opportunities ahead"--