MOOCs are so 2012 but IS There Gold in Them Hills?

The first two chapters in the MOOC story have been written: heroic arrival and unbounded enthusiasm followed by disappointment and backlash.  I argued in Fall 2012 that for liberal arts colleges at least the real future is in what this article calls SPOCs (small private online classes).  I’ve experimented with this form both last year and this.  MOOCs are like the Apollo space program – the benefits were not in getting to the moon but in all the tools that smart people invented in order to get to the moon.

Ten Part Washington Post Series on Higher Education (2013)

Dylan Matthew’s ten-part series “TUITION’S TOO DAMN HIGH” on the Washington Post’s “WonkBLOGS” appeared this summer. Matthews is a young journalist new to the education beat.  Some criticism of the series emphasized its “book report” quality (in contrast to “real reporting”), but it does a decent job of bringing lots of things folks are talking about onto our radar screens in these short pieces. -DR

See Also