Despite continual improvements, MOOCs as a concept are still in a fledgling, experimental phase. As with any experiment, things do not always go to plan.
In 2013, Slate reported that in January of that year San Jose State University entered into an agreement with Udacity, a major MOOC platform, to offer some of the university’s courses online for credit both to its students and to the public. While this was exciting news about the progression of MOOCs (which were then being offered for credit - could they replace traditional classroom education?), it turned out the idea of MOOCs as university courses offered for credit might not yet have been ready for prime time. SJSU mothballed the program just a few months later when pass rates for the courses failed to hit 50%.
What went wrong? Was it the students? The instructors? The courses? The delivery method (MOOCs) itself? Slate’s coverage suggested SJSU's particular group of pupil might have been an atypical student body by previous MOOCs' standards. Regardless of the reason or combination of reasons contributing to MOOCs' various challenges, each experiment with MOOCs is another data point and another opportunity to refine the MOOC model, the course offerings, the evaluation methods, and every other conceivable variable pertaining to MOOCs.
Another ironic example of MOOC meltdown occurred with a Coursera course called “Fundamentals of Online Learning: Planning and Application.” Sadly, the course was a largely negative experience for students and eventually had to be shut down. Critics, including students, complained of poor course design and execution. Given that it was a course about creating online courses, this was rather unfortunate.
Andrew Ng, cofounder of Coursera, had this to say about the course:
“We believe strongly in giving our university partners the ability to experiment with online education, and we encourage them to think outside the box when approaching online course development. Unfortunately this particular experiment did not go as planned, and out of respect for our students' time and effort, Coursera and Georgia Tech collaboratively determined that the best way to serve our students would be to close the class until the issues are resolved and we can offer a great experience. Moving forward, we will work with professors and universities to guarantee that all parties have a sufficient amount of time to review course material and design before a course’s start date. This will ensure that we have time to flag and address any issues and concerns before a course begins.”
Mr. Ng’s comments underscore the importance of experimentation, course design, and interaction between MOOC developers and MOOC platforms, both of whose names are associated with the experience.
Beyond getting evaluation and course design right, though, other aspects of MOOCs are also worthy of experimentation. For example, many MOOC creators would love to figure out how to improve completion and pass rates. In addition, for the time being, many courses are available to students free of charge. While providing a clear public benefit in the present, over the long term, creating, maintaining, and updating free content and continually enrolling new students year after year are not sustainable. The financial model of MOOCs will eventually require attention. Moreover, is price a factor in completion and pass rates? While there is some research linking paid MOOCs with higher completion, what is the optimal price for a course to maximize completion rates?
A third concern regards who is signing up for courses. To increase MOOCs’ benefit to society, MOOC creators and providers may wish to target more than the current folks who typically enroll in MOOCs: curious-but-already-educated Westerns, including many educators. Finally, it would be interesting to identify the role of different student profiles (regressed against factors like socioeconomic status, education level, gender, nationality, etc.) in completion and pass rates, as well as the roles of accreditation, certificate and diploma programs, and professional credibility on enrollment, completion, and pass rates.
Despite the challenges MOOCs face, the promise, the potential of MOOCs – their scalability, their reach, their innovation – merits continued investigation.