MOOCs offer courses and not degree programs: Facts and Myths revisited

The bottomline is Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)'s facilitate access to content in most convenient way. In short they are content for informal education...

NEW BUSINESS MODEL: For 1st time, MIT's free online classes can lead to degree

But, then with content, library books, and readings, does this directly and conveniently bring education (with necessary competency and skills) that leads to jobs or merely gives a means to find information that leads to intellectual satisfaction??? It is for the seeker to decide whatever they need... "MOOCs are free non-degree online courses with open unlimited global enrollment to anyone who desires to learn, and regardless of their current educational level." source: Global Directory of MOOC
See also:

• A Q&A with “Godfather of MOOCs” Sebastian Thrun after he disavowed his godchild
• Moocs are a good alternative to books - Times Higher Education; 
• Are Moocs the best chance we have to satisfy a global thirst for education?; 
• A New Polemic: Libraries, MOOCs, and the Pedagogical Landscape
• MOOCs May Facilitate Fraudulent Degrees 
•  University education, like love, cannot simply be moved 
• Faculty group continues anti-MOOC offensive @insidehighered
• The Disadvantages of Online Classes  : This is a long list but misses one most important academic concern: which disciplines require hands-on and practical intensive training???
• 5 Reasons Why MOOCs Provide Little Real Value
• The Golden Age of MOOCs is over and Why I hate Coursera

From m.chronicle.com - January 19, 5:22 PM

"An annual survey's findings reveal growing skepticism among academic leaders about the long-term prospects for massive open online courses." (source)

Four Facts About MOOCs:

1. It is About Spending Money Wisely on Education
2. MOOCs Continue a Diverse Education System
3. MOOCs Are About Quality Mass Education
4. MOOCs are built on 100 years of distance education experience

 Five Myths of MOOCs:

1. It's All about Money
2. MOOCs Create a Two-Tier Educational System
3. MOOCs Are Inherently Inferior
4. MOOCs Are Mechanistic
5. We've Seen How This Plays Out

Here is the MOOCs/Final Debate - MindMeister Mind Map (includes Pros and Cons). More discussion: MOOCs: Disrupting the University or Business as Usual? - Arena; Is higher education actually making inequality worse?

An Open Mind @ NYT

by KATIE HAFNER, Published: April 8, 2010 - Education Life - NYTimes.com

This article tells you about the Education Life as an open source. It also tells you that this has ....

"... potential in “unbundling” the four elements of educating: design of a course, delivery of that course, delivery of credit and delivery of a degree. “Traditionally, they’ve all lived in the same institutional setting.” Must all four continue to live together, or can one or more be outsourced?"

But this article doesn't tell you about:

a) the value of 'open-educational system' for jobs, in this recession,
b) if there is a recognition at all for this open-ed in job market and
c) value of these informal learning opportunities within the formal world of education.


What do you think about this article and the point I have raised above?
Continue reading The NY Sunday Times:

Higher Education Reimagined With Online Courseware

Info courtesy: Giora Hadar