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How will MOOCs evolve internationally?

Gary W. Matkin: International MOOC development will follow the same path as U.S. MOOCs. The initial excitement, hype, projections, and forecasts about the future of MOOCs will be followed by the “trough of disillusionment.” However, MOOCs will continue to proliferate as will the institutions (and institutional groups) that create and deliver them. MOOCs will be slowly integrated into the preexisting movement toward open education, and the same dynamics that have created the huge growth in Open Educational Resources (OER) will pertain to MOOCs as well.

The main dynamics are (1) the promise of lowering the cost of higher education (and thus the movement toward the granting of credit for open material) and (2) the promise of pedagogical efficiencies and breakthroughs. University consortiums will form around the development and delivery of OER, and every major university will become a frequent creator and user of OER.

Where will this take us?

Gary W. Matkin: In addition to the predictions given above, I feel that MOOCs will provide a huge boost to meaningful research on human learning as very large samples are involved and as the data collected from MOOCs and MOOC platforms are harvested and analyzed.

Do MOOCs actually facilitate learning and help distribute knowledge more widely in an affordable way that renders it accessible worldwide?

Gary W. Matkin: MOOCs and OER will be a significant contributor to higher education in a more consistent, efficient, and less costly way in their ability to distribute knowledge throughout the world. I expect that the real effects on higher education will be seen in less than five years. However, this can happen only if language barriers can be removed. More importantly, translation and “localization” must be achieved on a broad scale.

The biggest barrier to more widespread distribution of knowledge is the fact that learning depends significantly on the learning context, and one context (say, an undergraduate course in fluid dynamics from MIT) cannot easily be transported to another context (say a university classroom in Vietnam). We have been aware of this barrier for over ten years as the supply of OER and OpenCourseWare has increased geometrically, but the use of open material has not kept pace.

Who stands to benefit, and who has unwarranted hopes? 

Gary W. Matkin: Ultimately, those students who currently do not have access to higher education because of economic or geographic concerns will benefit. Many of these students will finally have the opportunity to gain the knowledge necessary to enter into higher levels of economic society. However, the barriers of technology and localization will frustrate some who currently predict a short-term effect of any impact. This includes governmental bodies that have unrealistic expectations for technology and people’s ability to use it.

Is this phenomenon stable, long-term, or a flash-in-the-pan? 

Gary W. Matkin: MOOCs are a stable, long-term, and enduring phenomenon, especially when viewed as part of the open education world. Even now the definition of a MOOC is constantly challenged, and most MOOCs are not really “open.” They have, though, demonstrated the universal thirst for knowledge and the realization of human potential through education. It is this thirst that will sustain the MOOC movement in whatever form it takes. The open-education movement continues to thrive, even as the barriers to greater use are encountered. “Openness” is an imperative that will not be overlooked or denied.