Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth, Paradox and Possibility
September 24, 2012
Commentary by Stephen Downes

Survey paper authored by one of the more notable figures in online and distance learning on the topic of MOOCs as part of a fellowship at Korea National Open University (KNOU). The paper is offered as an MS-Word document, but for those who prefer not to download the document I have set up access in a generic blog - click here. "The real revolution," writes Daniel, "is that universities with scarcity at the heart of their business models are embracing openness." The article is written almost entirely about the xMOOCs being offered by big name universities; he does not survey reserach on the cMOOCs, nor does he include gRSShoper in the list of MOOC platforms, and the 'myths' he explodes about MOOCs echo the criticisms about xMOOC dropout rates, certificates and pedagogy.

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Comments

Re: Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth

mgozaydin, September 25, 2012

I respect Sir John Daniel very highly.
In his speech in Korea, speech contains many mistakes and misunderstanding which may lead many people to the wrong highways .

The term MOOC for MITx + Harvardx is completely wrong.
MITx + Harvardx is unique .
Although edx liked to be called that way too in order to be popular.

1.- ONLINE education is feasible only if it is followed by millions or at least 100,000 within a 5 years or 10 semester duration .

Nobody but elite schools can achive that . They are MITx + Harvardx + Berkeleyx + Stanfordx + Yale x

For Anybody else, business is much more challenging .

John never mention this

2.- MITx + Harvardx is not free. But again edx liked to be called like that.
In regular days MITx + Harvardx will charge a small fee. They declared that.
Since cost will be almost nill, a small fee is more than enough to finance whole operation edx . It is win win case .

3.- Today MITx provides certificates of MITx . They are as good as a credit for us , employers .
When time is right MITx will award a degree of MITx as well .

Will continue.

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