Essay Question 6 - Explain how MOOCs are reflective of changing styles of education and how they reflect the emergence of postmodernity

Question 1

Introduction to essay question 6. Explain how MOOCs are reflective of changing styles of education and how they reflect the emergence of postmodernity

Answer 1

• What are MOOCs (massive open online courses)
• Online course have been around for several decades, but this rise of MOOCs indicates a significant “shift in higher education” (Cooper, 2013).
• “A radical disruption of the university sector, ending the current model of higher education within a decade or two” (Cooper, 2013)
• MOOCs major providers are: Coursera, EdA and Udacity and these are private companies who offer courses online
• The majority of MOOCs rely on traditional forms of distance learning, so that they can connect with students around the globe.

Question 2

• What are the strengths of MOOCs for the tertiary sector? (See more under Postmodern impact)

Answer 2

• A ‘game changer’ (Marginson, 2012)
• “We are witnessing the end of higher education as we know it” (Aoun, 2012)
• Friedman believes that education needs to reflect the needs of a new technologically savvy generation of student consumers (Cooper, 2013

Question 3

How might be the impact of MOOCs on Australian education:

Answer 3

• Some claim that MOOCs is an alternative to traditional university, however, successful completion of a MOOC from university may not be “recognised form of accreditation” (Cooper, 2013). Students usually only receive a certificate of completion, a value which is vague.
• Arguable that MOOCs disrupt university education, however it may just be an expansion of what is already happening to higher education – “MOOCs make visible the current trends in education (Cooper, 2013).”
• MOOCS may alter the way that higher education will be delivered in the future
• Many suggest that MOOCS does not compare to university. The limited interaction between teacher and student and the problems with assessment and high levels of cheating, mean that students will not be able to receive an education that compares to that of a university degree.
• MOOCS undermine the university as a social and cultural institution
• MOOCs may undermine those who have a university degree and make it more difficult for graduates to find work, as they compete against those with accreditation from MOOCs. (Deskilling of academic labour)
• There are new divisions in academic labour
• “Students have been metamorphosed from apprentices into customers and their teachers from master craftsmen to merchants” (Williams cited in Cooper, 2013)
• Potential weakness of MOOCs: the tertiary sector is that there is the potential for bankruptcies at standard universities because of the growth of MOOCs

Question 4

• How do MOOCs reflect postmodernity?

Answer 4

• Students are consumers and learning through MOOCs is a “technological exercise”
• Knowledge has become a product
• Collapse of time and space: MOOCS enables students to receive an education without being in the physical classroom. The use of technology means “the world has gone from connect to hyperconected in just seven years… a generation that has grown up on these technologies is increasingly comfortable learning and interacting with professors through online platforms” (Cooper, 2013). Students are able to complete their accreditation at their own time a pace – online learning makes education flexible and means that individuals do not have to give up working to complete the course.
• Notion of abstraction: not face-to-face learning
• Globalisation: all different countries, at the same, learning the same thing
• Depthlessness: reduce the knowledge and deliver this to students as a package and in pieces.
• Neo-liberal values: privatisation, economic priorities (branding), the market, branding
• MOOCs reflect the the growing demand for higher education around the world
• It is arguable that MOOCs are able to provide quality education that is low cost
• According to Carson and Schmidt, “we are approaching a tipping point where education and educators can use technology to reach almost every person on the planet inexpensively” (Cooper, 2014)
• MOOCs represent the student of the 21st century, one that is a consumer of education and recognises the value of education
• MOOCS also represent the ‘openness’ of the postmodern society. It provides individuals “who might never otherwise have…[an] opportunity to experience post-secondary learning a free and open chance to participate” (Cooper, 2013)
• MOOCs provides an education that does not rely on labour costs, therefore making it more affordable than university higher education.
• MOOCs enable students who have never had the chance of higher education a possibility to do so. “As MOOCs attempt to capture new segments of the global student market, there is a need to go beyond regarding his as simply another benefit of globalisation…” (Cooper, 2013)
• MOOCs are able to “collapse spatial boundaries has been lauded, but little has been said about the impact this might have on local or national cultures (Koller, 2013)