大规模开放在线课程的发展前景——对由相关神话、悖论和可能性所引发困惑的深层思考

Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth, Paradox and Possibility

大规模开放在线课程是2012 年教育界的流行词汇,不仅媒体围绕该主题进行疯狂炒作,商业利益也紧紧跟进。先知式的预言掩没了冷静的分析,忘却了早期教育技术时尚转瞬化为泡沫的历史。本文将大规模开放在线课程置于教育技术和开放/ 远程学习演进的广阔背景中,描述了这种网络开放课程的短暂历史。尽管对于预示着高等教育革命的大规模开放在线课程的大肆宣传集中在其巨大规模上,真正的革命却是,需要变革大学在其经营运行模式核心中所缺失的东西,即拥抱开放性。我们考察了渗透到大规模开放在线课程运动中的悖论,并揭示了受支持者鼓吹的某些神话。争相提供大规模开放在线课程的潮流将催生出一场重大变革,迫使参与其中的院校重塑使命,并将前所未有地关注教学质量和学生,还可能创造出降低成本的发展趋势。

MOOCs ( Massive Open Online Courses) are the educational buzzword of 2012. Media frenzy surrounds them and commercial interests have moved in. Sober analysis is overwhelmed by apocalyptic predictions that ignore the history of earlier educational technology fads. The paper describes the short history of MOOCs and sets them in the wider context of the evolution of educational technology and open / distance learning. While the hype about MOOCs presaging a revolution in higher education has focussed on their scale, the real revolution is that universities with scarcity at the heart of their business models are embracing openness. We explore the paradoxes that permeate the MOOCs movement and explode some myths enlisted in its support. The competition inherent in the gadarene rush to offer MOOCs will create a sea change by obliging participating institutions to revisit their missions and focus on teaching quality and students as never before. It could also create a welcome deflationary trend in the costs of higher education.