These slides accompany the final oral presentation for the research project "The Evolution & Impact of Massive Open Online Courses," a project done in partial fulfillment of the Doctorate of Education in Learning Technologies at Pepperdine University. This research will

1. The Evolution & Impact of the
Massive Open Online Course
Final Oral Presentation
Doctorate in Education
Rolin Moe

2. Where We Left Off
• A research proposal to determine not only the outlook
of the education landscape due to MOOCs, but see
how the phenomenon affects political, social and
cultural attitudes re: education
• A history of the MOOC told from two perspectives: the
dominant story from the Stanford/AI perspective and
the oppositional story weaving in negotiated and
counter-culture histories
• Delphi Study designed to engage experts around a
dozen issues embedded in the MOOC phenomenon

3. Meet Our Panel
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Dennis Yang
Maria Andersen
Peter Norvig
George Siemens
Kurt Squire
Kevin Werbach
Fatimah Wirth
John Owens
Terry Anderson
Tony Bates
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Amy Collier
Valerie Irvine
Stacey Clawson
Todd Edebohls
Steve Filling
Cathy Sandeen
Anya Kamenetz
Sean Michael Morris
Audrey Watters
Clay Shirky

4. Logistics
• Round 1: October 14-28. Response rate = 20 of
20.
• Round 2: October 29 - November 9. Response
rate = 17 of 20. One dropout cited time
commitment; two did not give reason
• Round 3: November 10 - December 1. Response
rate = 13 of 17. Three dropouts cited time
commitment, one did not give reason. Deadline 3
weeks rather than 2 due to end of
semester, holiday season

5. Prompts
Discussion was built around 12
quotations, pulled from existing MOOC
literature and paraphrased.
#videolecture, #personalization, #data, #autodi
dact, #publicgood, #democratization, #expertis
e, #professors, #disruptive, #imperialism, #tierb
ased, #labor

6. Round 1
• Consensus on 1 of 12 prompts (#data); experts
agree learning analytics borne of MOOC system
will help solve edu problems
• Experts could not find consensus on definitions
for basic education terms: student, data, MOOC,
etc.
• Discussion veered toward:
– role (& power) of technology in education
– the MOOC as already better than the status quo
– learning theory behind MOOC movement

7. Quotes from Round 1
The analytics provided by
MOOCs…can provide a window
into actual student
performance – missing in most
F2F and online learning today.
I have yet to see statistics or
data generated by an online
course that had [at] their
center the learner’s
interest…these sorts of
assessments don’t measure
learning, they measure
instruction.
Sebastian [Thrun] and Daphne
[Koller] and Andrew [Ng] know
more than almost anyone, but
my impression is that their
knowledge is more experiential
than data-driven.
In truth, it is anecdotes,
stories, and ideas we must
equip ourselves with if we
hope to succeed in any
learning environment.

8. Round 2
• Consensus on 3 of remaining 11 prompts
(#democratization, #expertise, #tierbased)
– disagreed on MOOC’s potential to democratize education
– disagreed on assertion that there are no online education experts
– agreed that MOOCs offered a pathway to a tier-based model for edu
economics
• While #disruptive did not gain a consensus, prompt went from majority
disagree to majority agree
• Technology & business jargon introduced by experts was agreed-upon in
definition and use, unlike edu definitions which continued to lack
agreement
• Discussion further moved to defining educational theory in cognitive or
social/communal terms. Other discussion threads included
– role of economics in the MOOC phenomenon
– whether technology alone can be educational salvo
– MOOC in terms of perpetual crisis of education

9. Quotes from Round 2
The people who need the most
support will end up with the most
debt because they had to pay for
services to overcome the crappy
instructional design in that elite
MOOC.
[Elite schools] are trafficking on
reputations they already had. Now
we’ll find out how much of that
reputation withstands public scrutiny.
Disruptive…what a terrible word – it
needs to be taken out back and shot
and never used by educators again.
What is a MOOC an alternative to?
From my experience, these are
students who would not consider
paying university tuition.
One of the realities of education is
that for most consumers it is
analogous to medical treatment:
consumers [and the public] don't
have capacity or knowledge to
accurately assess the effectiveness of
treatment - they can only assess the
impact on symptoms, which is a very
different thing from efficacy of
treatment. Likewise, "public"
evaluation of education is largely
doomed to failure.

10. Round 3
• None of the remaining eight prompts gained
consensus
• Panelists challenged the notion that MOOC is
interchangeable with online learning, while
others freely substituted the terms. Difficulty in
researching vocabulary consensus continued
• Discussions fully merged across prompts
– economics wove into elitism
– pedagogy/theory was discussed with labor
– purpose of education crossed into model-based
design

11. Quotes from Round 3
If the push is driven by pedagogy
explain to me why
Daphne, Sebastian, inter alia are
so damn concerned with
monetization?
MOOCs on their own are a public
good. It's when people argue that
they are an alternative to a wellfunded education system that I
worry.
It is true that teaching presence is
associated with higher
completion rates and
performance, but this is not a
great thing. We should be
helping students to be come selfmotivated and confident lifelong
learners, able to learn with or
without teachers – and not
continuing to place ourselves at
the center of students’ learning.
The water gets murkier as we
continue to debate the issue of
monetization.
…the push for efficiency in 20th
Century education tended to be
about financial decisions, not
pedagogical ones. History
repeats itself.

12. Surprises
• #data received a consensus in Round 1 despite
field criticism of Learning Analytics scope,
methods & potential
– Perhaps MOOC expertise is heavily weighted towards
individuals with penchant for technological solutions
• #expertise not receiving a consensus in Round 1
despite expert panel consisting largely of online
education experts
• Panel’s difficulty in clearly defining and utilizing
agreed-upon educational terms and definitions

13. Overall
• The rise (rebirth?) of cognitive learning theory
• A discord in the application of educational terms
and vocabulary
• Difficulty for educators to clearly define the
purpose of higher education, differentiate
between it and job-based training
• MOOC = Online Learning (in the mainstream)
• Economics are at forefront of MOOC debate
• Strong belief that MOOCs can solve economic
crisis of education, already solving learning crisis

14. Education Implications
• Higher Ed solutions to
have economic
implications at forefront.
• Continued and stronger
focus on the Learning
Analytics/Data Mining
movement.
• Growing discord between
MOOC developers,
education scholars, and
practitioners in regards to
theory and pedagogy.

15. Education Implications
• Continued debate of the purpose
of higher education; increased
focus on skills and competencies
due to lack of voices advocating
for the system.
• MOOCs and future iterations of
EdTech Solutionism will dress
within historical education in
crisis rhetoric, seeing
improvement immediately.
• Many “Future of Education”
debates driven by non-edu
voices, where terms and
vocabulary are not negotiable
(business, computer science).