Are MOOCs miracle or myth? The MOOC providers talk about its benefits while the skeptics believe that MOOCs will prove damaging

MOOCs going global, giving access: miracle or myth?
   The event saw MOOC providers FutureLearn and Coursera going head to head with skeptics who believe that MOOCs will ultimately prove damaging to education in the developing world.
   The MOOC providers spoke about the benefits of high quality, free education being made available to millions of people who otherwise would lack the physical and financial means to attend universities.
   The skeptics thought that there needed to be a conversation on how " to use innovation in a way that supports the global academy of commons rather than simply advancing the individual aspirations of institutions".
   The Future of MOOCs
   Simon Nelson informed the conference that " Some see MOOCs as the biggest thing to solve world poverty; others dismiss them as a fad that will have disappeared in two years. Neither is true. MOOCs are not miracles and they are certainly not myths,"
   According to Nelson all MOOCs are doing is offering " access to institutions that previously were only open to those people who could physically walk through the door," He believes that rather than viewing MOOCs as a threat MOOCs should be seen as offering academics tools to promote their teaching. He stressed that while he saw this as "an overwhelming positive", we should "not assume it is a panacea for problems in the developing world. "
   Why have MOOCs proved so successful?
   What is it about MOOCs that has captured the imagination of today’s students and led to their being so successful? According to Daphne Koller this can be summed up in two main reasons.
   i . A greater understanding of the power of the visual. It is now possible to teach very large numbers of students with only a single lecturer. This makes the cost per student tiny.
   ii. A growing willingness on the part of students to engage in social interaction online. This allows peer-to-peer learning and teaching. This is a radically different approach from the traditional hub-and-spoke method which involves a single infrastructure and at least several dozen lecturers teaching. The new approach allows much greater scalability and this is key to the MOOC teaching method.
   Where do MOOCs draw their students from?
   According to Daphne Koller there are several distinct categories of students participating in MOOCs.
   i . Those who attend regular universities that employ MOOCs to enhance the learning experience. This is the smallest group of MOOC students.
   ii. Those who have completed higher education many years ago, studying subjects which are now obsolete or no longer relevant to their careers. Most of these people are not in a position to return to full-time university study. MOOCs offer an opportunity to enjoy lifelong learning.
   iii. Around one third of Coursera’s learners are located in the developing world.
   Koller stressed the potential for MOOCs to enhance capacity for higher education in places like India. Koller did admit that there are challenges facing MOOCs, one of which is the lack of MOOC content for people in their own languages. She also mentioned the establishment of learning hubs. Learning hubs are locations scattered around the world where students can take MOOCs while participating in study groups and benefiting from some supervision.
   A divided world
   Despite the positive atmosphere surrounding MOOCs a note of caution was sounded by several professors.
   First, Apoorvanand Jha, from the University of Delhi spoke about the impact of MOOCs in relation to cases like Malala Yousafzal in Pakistan. He said that there was a view that MOOCs would allow them to study at home and therefore protect them from assault or attack. He argued that this view " ignores the transformative role of education itself. For the vast majority of the world, knowledge and education is about making a claim for a share of cultural capital. "
   The vice-chancellor at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Professor Adam Habib admitted that the arrival of MOOCs would mean big changes in higher education. Cynicism could prevent innovation, and romanticism could raise unrealistic expectations. "We need nuance. " He went on to raise three areas of particular concern. i . The quality of education provided by MOOCs.
   ii. The dangers of US and European education being perceived as better by students in the developing world and the negative impact this could have on universities in the developing world if student prefer to become accredited by western universities.
   ill. The financial model employed by MOOCs.
   Professor Koller responded to the financial concern by stating that Coursera intended that their MOOCs would always remain free with the costs being met by premium services, including credentialing. He argued that universities in both the developing and the developed world should not be competing but working together. He said that universities should be engaging in building cross border partnerships and thinking about "how to enable a global academy of commons. "