MOOCs and the "Wow factor"

MOOCs: size really really matters?

Wow, it's an expression that we tear those products, technologies and situations that strike us to the end. It's inevitable. A bow to the new human achievements through excellence and innovation. But MOOCs have enough to tear that deeply expression of wonder and surprise? I'm not an expert on the subject, so I joined recently this wonderful experience called MobiMooc. It's my third "big course" under this approach. And I reaffirm it, big, because the first two were 163,000 and 155,000 students, according to its creators and facilitators. The first one I made was with Udacity on Artificial Intelligence (AI). I was so impressed once I verified that handled more than 160,000 people. The technological challenge of what is lost sight of, and it's free. It definitely deserved "a big Wow". Udacity says on its website: "We believe university-level education can be Both high quality and low cost. Using the economics of the Internet, we've connected some of the greatest teachers to Hundreds of Thousands of students all over the world". Sirs and madams, another well deserved Wow. Moreover, Dr. Sebastian Thrun, Udacity's Founding CEO and President/COO gave up his comfortable and safe position at Stanford to undertake this adventure to democratize education! After taking this course, I often wondered if this issue of MOOCs was about technology, robots, AI and large numbers to break records, or was it really to innovate to maintain excellence in education? I must say it's more of the former, because although technology deployment deserves many profound Wows, educational strategy was limited to videos with quizzes at the end to reinforce learning, with a mid-term and at the end, and office hours. Sure, a forum started rather late and there were many local initiatives where people were organized in groups. I could not join with any, so my experience was repetitive, solitary, almost like a drowning in the sea of ​​people for whom I was a perfect stranger. Later I joined another MOOC on statistics, as Prof. Thrun wanted to break another record on the size of his next course. Obviously, in this case, size does matter. But it also left for similar reasons. No wow at all! My next experience with another sea of 155,000 invisible people was with Google. The only expectation I pulled an inevitable Wow. The dynamic was similar to that used by Udacity. In fact, Dr. Thrun is a key part of Google's innovation. But this time the videos were more practical, with exercises and a mid term and final exam for certification. There were also forums and used Google Hang Outs. The experience was warmer, I learned lots of things since the course was in extremity practical and, of course, a much more simple than the AI as we talk about how to improve search with Google Search. They gave me a 90 over 100! Looking for a third experience I joined MobiMOOC. Completely lost for nearly two weeks. Now there wasn't a sea of ​​people, but of choice. So many good level and I did not know where to start until almost 10 days later. Ignatia de Waard, the course leader, offered us a warm and very useful orientation. After a diverse challenging activities I finally coupled. This MOOC has been the most human and deserves great deeply Wow, specially for Ignatia inexhaustible work and her support group (I think she has one, or at least a pair of clones of herself). In the first two MOOCs were the same teachers throughout the experience, but the diversity of MobiMOOC experts has given a further wealth had not seen before. Schedules, for example 4:00 am to me in the case of a Webinar, have made it difficult to maximize the experience. MobiMOOC has not been a crowded experience with thousands of participants, or is it? I dare say not, because the scale has allowed greater interaction and humanize the learning experience. In conclusion: are MOOCs loosing their wow factor, their "mojo"? I think so. It is not about breaking records or implement super AI robotic technologies. This is about people, real people. The worst enemy for MOOCs is themselves: their huge size that can be converted into a solitary experience, students becoming shipwrecked in a sea of ​​people. I loved MobiMOOC for its human scale, for its warmth and personalized learning through different routes. That deserves a big Wow. But we can scale this type of learning? The discussion continues as the MOOCs have proliferated. You have the last word and now I'm attending CFHE12, my fourth MOOC. I hope a lot of wows are awaiting us.