MOOCs
The idea of Massive Open Online Courses has me both excited and terrified. Excited because they are about spreading knowledge and it being accessible to everyone with Internet connection. The lack of fees also has me excited as I truly believe, education should be free. What got me to panic was the lack of a linear, traditional part of the course. I’m very old-school and like my often linear logic very much. At least if I had some signs along the way what to start with, what options would there be to go over next, the vision wouldn’t terrify me so much? Also the interactive community makes me doubt, I don’t know how to deal with discussion forums. How does the interaction look like? What is it based on? Does one have to interact with other students?
However, I haven’t participated in a MOOC, my experience in this matter equals zero. I have done Khan Academy, those however are just recorded lectures – not a MOOC. So, as far as I know, there might be a teacher or a tutor with a guiding role. The collaboration with other student may be organised in a synchronous instead of asynchronous way. Despite my fears I would love to find and join a course like that or even collaborate in creating one myself.
Digital Resilience
University courses were always free for me. I come from a country where higher education is available to anyone who passes the entry exam, and now, here in Sweden, I can participate in any free standing course as long as I fulfill the requirements. This has always been the norm for me, the article however, focused on universities where tuition fees have to be paid. The biggest difference here being that they need to worry how to survive financially. What other sources of revenue can they have to be able to survive. That is why, it was interesting to read about universities being compared to ecological system, whether or not we pay tuition.
Since the start of the digitalisation people and institutions have been sensitive about their intelectual property. With almost every new job one has to sign an NDA form. Having “the recipe” means profit. It was news to me that there are institutions that intentionally want to share their content for free with anyone who is interested. This could be the future of education. This could also mean that we start viewing education in a very different way, not linear, via Bachellor to Master and on to PhD, but rather a diagram of skills or a mind map of competencies. Universities may not be the only safe heavens of knowledge and free thinking anymore. The openness and accessibility of internet have given us a network. Universities as institutions should make sure they are ahead of this curve, otherwise their authority, at least in the realm of innovation, will dissipate.