Massive Open Online Courses and Higher Education ― What Went Right, What Went Wrong and Where to Next?

Since the first MOOC was launched at the University of Manitoba in 2008, this new form of the massification of higher education has been a rollercoaster ride for the university sector. The New York Times famously declared 2012 to be the year of the MOOC. However by 2014 the number of academic leaders who believed the model was unsustainable doubled to more than 50%. While the MOOC hype has somewhat subsided- and the ’massive’ and ’open’ prerequisites are being supplemented by ’small’ and ’fee-based’ credit bearing online course options - the attitudes and anxieties of this peak time can still be seen influencing universities and their administrations. Many higher education providers are still reacting to the perceived threat these potentially disruptive technologies represented; while, paradoxically, trying not to be left behind by this perceived ’new’ trend. However, the uptake of MOOCs has plateaued. This is the first volume that addresses Massive Open Online Courses from a post-MOOC perspective. We move beyond the initial hype and revolutionary promises of the peak-MOOC period and take a sober look at what remains. This book explores the future of the MOOC in higher education by examining what went right, what went wrong and where to now for the massification of higher education and online learning and teaching. The chapters in this collection address these questions from a wide variety of different backgrounds, methodologies and regional perspectives. They address learner experiences, the move towards course for credit, innovative design, transformations and implications of the MOOC in turn.

Dr Rebecca Bennett is a Lecturer, Academic Language and Literacy, in the Centre for University Teaching and Learning at Murdoch University. Her diverse research interests include the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), popular culture, digital culture, tourism and eLearning. Her recent SoTL research includes a peer-reviewed journal paper on conceptual digital pedagogy (Technology, Pedagogy and Education - in press), academic identity (Higher Education Research and Development - in press), intercultural communication (Journal of Studies in International Education - in print), and queer-international intersections at university (Higher Education Research and Development - in press). Her completed edited collection (with Angela Jones) The Digital Evolution of Live Music is currently in press (Chandos Publications) and due for release in July 2015. Dr Mike Kent is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Internet Studies at Curtin University. Mike’s research focus is on higher education and particularly online education, as well as online social networking platforms. His edited collection An Education in Facebook? Higher Education and the World’s Largest Social Network was released in May 2014 through Routledge. His other area of interest is in people with disabilities and their use of, and access to, information technology and the Internet. His book with Katie Ellis Disability and New Media was also released through Routledge in 2011. His forthcoming edited collection, also with Katie Ellis, Disability and Social Media: Global Perspectives will be available through Ashgate in 2016.