Rob Jenkins Weighs in On MOOCs - And He is Right

One of the best writers for the Chronicle of Higher Education is Rob Jenkins.  He really makes sense most all of the time.  Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that he is a an actual faculty member at a community college (Georgia Perimeter College).

In a recent article in the Chronicle titled Who Is Driving the Online Locomotive? Rob voices a healthy skepticism about the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) phenomena.  I encourage you to read his entire column, but his summation is telling.  He warns that "the only way to slow it down is for enough of us to refuse to get on board and instead line the tracks, signaling 'proceed with caution' with all our might."

I know there are some good things that will develop from MOOCs, not the least of which is that it has spawned discussion about broader issues with learning and learning online.  However, I am personally concerned about

Used under Flickr Creative Commons

fundamental issues concerning educational quality, expectations, and outcome.  In addition, there is an element of control by mega-universities (or their consortia) and by corporate entities that rubs me the wrong way.  Finally, for the students at community, technical and junior colleges, we know that they typically do better with traditional classroom courses than online.  So why would we want to put them in a MOOC with 70,000 other students?

I am trying to keep an open mind on MOOCs.  In fact, I will be enrolling in a MOOC offered by Harvard next month.  I want to have that student perspective.

I am with Rob Jenkins - we need to proceed with caution.  Time will tell who is driving this train.