When massive open online courses first made headlines in 2011, they were trumpeted for their potential to reduce costs and expand access to higher learning, especially elite education. So how’s that going so far?
Two new books aim to answer that question, chronicling the rather brief history of MOOCs — courses from prestigious universities, most of them free and enrolling throngs of students.
Jonathan Haber calls his book, published last week, simply “MOOCs” (M.I.T. Press). The slim paperback is a primer on the phenomenon as well as a chronicle of his own experience fast-tracking the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. He spent 12 months taking MOOCs and other forms of free learning, and blogged about it as the Degree of Freedom project. (He already had an old-fashioned degree, in chemistry, from Wesleyan University.)
Recently out in Kindle, Jeffrey J. Selingo’s “MOOC U: Who Is Getting the Most Out of Online Education and Why” (Simon & Schuster) explains how MOOCs have largely failed to fulfill their promise to expand access. In an essay for Education Life adapted from the book, Mr. Selingo tells why that might be. For one, the average consumer of MOOCs is not the remote villager hungry for education or the college dropout in the United States looking for a second chance. It’s a young white American male with a bachelor’s degree and a full-time job. Many have advanced degrees. But no matter, writes Mr. Selingo. MOOCs are serving a function as professional development — and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Related Coverage:
Demystifying the MOOC
Massive open online courses haven’t changed the world of education. The average user is a white American man with a degree already. But that doesn’t mean they’re failures.