Though I disagree with a number of the details, this is on the whole a good article that effectively argues that the changes brought about by MOOCs are just beginning, and not in decline at all. James G. Mazoue identifies four major drivers of change that have become evident in the wake of MOOCs:
- MOOC-based degrees - "a quality online degree offered at scale for a nominal or greatly reduced cost is a more attractive alternative for many students"
- Competency-Based Education - "effectively enables individualized learning but shifts the overall power differential in education from institutions to students"
- Formalization - "adopting effective learning strategies and instructional methods should not be a happenstance occurrence, but rather reflectively adopted and systematically implemented"
- Regulatory reform - ""Higher education," Andrew Kelly and Frederick Hess point out, "functions more like a cartel than a dynamic marketplace."
Now just throwing all of this into the private sector is not an appropriate recipe for reform; we will just end up with the sort of shambles that characterizes financial services or the insurance industry. But neither can we merely continue with the existing system which is at once too expensive and too ineffective. Effective educational policy has tgo see the system of learning as a type of infrastructure, worthy of and needing public-level support to ensure equity of access and a focus on quality of service.
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