The Transformative Potential of MOOCs and Contrasting Online Pedagogies, 2017-2018

This data collection relates to project 3.4 of the Centre for Global Higher Education: The transformative potential of MOOCs and contrasting online pedagogies. The response of higher education systems to the possibilities of digital technologies has been sporadic and localised. System-level initiatives relate more to administration and research than to education, while institution-level responses focus mainly on installing virtual learning environments. One area where digital innovation in HE has been rapid and large-scale is the phenomenon of the spread of massive, open, online courses (MOOCs). The top universities in the US, a few in the UK, the EU, the Far East, Australia, and now also in parts of the Global South, have experimented with this form of HE. The transformative potential of MOOCs, while widely forecast, is still uncertain, for several reasons: MOOCs have done little to transform undergraduate education, as some 80 per cent of participants are highly qualified professionals. MOOC affordances and the large-scale participation rates are incompatible with the personal nurturing and scaffolding that supports high quality student learning. Universities and platform developers are still developing the business models they need to make MOOCs sustainable, and financially viable. In order to explore what features of MOOCs have most potential to transform Higher Education, in depth interviews with MOOC participants were conducted online.