The MOOC model has many benefits, but there are limitations as well. Below are non-exhaustive lists of benefits and drawbacks to MOOCs.
Benefits:
- Ability to accommodate much larger class sizes than traditional classrooms
- Open enrollment – no formal admissions process
- Flexibility for students’ schedules and locations
- Access for all to the world’s best experts, educators, and institutions (imagine if we could all take science classes taught by Bill Nye!)
- Ability to piece together the best courses possible from multiple institutions
- Flexibility for instructors to “take the classroom with them” to film a lecture on location (at a museum, in a place of interest, etc.)
- Opportunity for instructors to “get it just right” with multiple takes when recording lectures
- Highly reusable lectures for what previously might have been multiple sections of a single course and in subsequent semesters or school years (barring major changes in content area)
- Immediate feedback on homework/exercises through automated grading
- Lower costs to institutions and students (no physical classrooms, larger class sizes/fewer professors, often free class materials, automated grading and peer feedback through online forums (fewer TAs required))
- Increased reach of world-class education to people around the world and of various socioeconomic backgrounds (including traditionally marginalized groups)
- Vast array of new data ranging from how and when students learn best to specifics on where students make mistakes
Limitations:
- Programs that aren’t accredited in the same way as traditional university courses (even though they’re from accredited institutions)
- Courses mostly offered individually, with fewer program-level options (although this is changing)
- Lack of a degree-granting exclusively MOOC program; as such, even a MOOC certificate is not (yet) a replacement for a traditional 4- or even 2-year degree
- MOOCs' lacking respect compared to other traditional degrees and certifications, even those offered by the same institutions
- Low, at times abysmal, completion rates
- Challenge of engaging students who are not physically present
- Difficulty of establishing a sense of community or camaraderie akin to a traditional classroom or university setting
- Larger class sizes with little if any individual interaction with professors
- Challenges inherent with certain course types
- Difficulties with automated grading of long-form essays/written work, providing challenges for certain types of courses (e.g. humanities, art, social science, advanced language courses)
- Challenges for courses requiring a physical product (e.g. engineering, sewing, cooking, mechanics, etc.)
Efforts are underway to address these limitations where possible. For example, universities are experimenting with certificate programs for completing a series of MOOCs, as well as college credit for completing certain courses. Eventually, entire degree programs may be available.
Issues with engagement are being addressed in a few different ways. For example, online forums allow students to interact with each other to discuss questions and assignments. Instructors can even chime in to the discussion to provide corrections and feedback that are visible to all. In addition to online forums, edX encourages students using its platform to meet in person with other people in their area taking the same course. Research has shown that students who meet in such study groups are far more likely to complete their courses. Finally, course instructors can host virtual office hours via Google Hangouts or other group video chat software to allow students dedicated time to ask and receive answers to their questions.
Grading and evaluating students’ work is another challenge for MOOCs because class sizes are so large. For some types of content and question types, computer software can easily provide instant feedback to learners, reinforcing right answers and providing explanations for why various answers are incorrect. For questions and subjects requiring longer written answers, such as the humanities, MOOCs employ a few different approaches. For example, self- and peer-grading, where professors provide guidelines as to what they were looking for and students correct their own and others’ work, has proven successful. Advances in computer software also have also improved computers’ ability to grade even longer written passages.
Despite these efforts, there’s still no perfect MOOC method or platform that works for every type of content. As with any pedagogical development, it’s crucial to keep audience, content, and delivery method in line with the learning objectives to design the right course. Innovative instructional designers are right to imagine new ways to present content and work around the limitations of online and distance learning inherent in MOOCs, but there will likely always be some topics and concepts best taught hands on and in person.