Wednesday, February 13, 2013

MOOCs and Pedagogy: Part 2 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

MOOCs and Pedagogy: Part 2 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:


MOOCs and Pedagogy: Part 2

Hard as it is for me to keep up with the spread of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in higher education and the sizable issues accompanying how they are organized, taught, and what students take away from the experience, I have learned a few things from taking one course (although I dropped out), listening to a panel of professors who taught online courses, and reading extensively pro- and anti- MOOCs commentaries. Here is what I have learned thus far.
1.  At least three groups of academics and entrepreneurs have emerged in debating the merits of MOOCs: Advocates, Skeptics, and Agnostics.
Advocates (see herehere, and here) include those recent entrepreneurs into the world of MOOCs and academics swept off their feet by offering their expertise to  thousands–even hundreds of thousands–of students simultaneously as opposed to  hundreds in a lecture hall. Advocates also include those who have labored long