MOOCs - Digital Trend or Educational Revolution?

MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – have become a popular new model for education inside and outside educational institutions. MOOCs hold a promise of free and accessible education for all. MOOCs enjoy unique advantages: an ability to reach a massive audience by being online and open to anyone, and a flexible learning approach thanks to self-paced courses. The characteristics of MOOCs are of interest from a lifelong learning perspective because they offer a possible solution to a rapid and increasing need for education worldwide.
Within only a few years, MOOCs have been widely adopted and accepted as part of the educational agenda. The MOOC phenomenon prompts optimism as well as scepticism mostly because it is being considered within the discourses it disrupts. Is it, for example, enough for many MOOC enrollees to participate for their own sake, and to get access to just those resources and those activities in which they participate? Considering the high number of participants who enrol in a MOOC, this might be the case, but does not in a traditional sense carry learners through the whole course. On the other hand, to what extent is the purpose of MOOCs to be equivalent with other kinds of education or competence development? And what demands does this give rise to in relation to which ways of assessment are being used in MOOCs? Is enrolling in a MOOC for example a good “deal” for the learners in the sense of taking a shortcut to a certificate? This presentation discusses potentials and challenges and arguing that new digital trends may make promises, but there are no quick fixes, when it comes to sustainable learning.







** Please also attached a presentation file (MS PowerPoint(.pptx) format **