Does the term MOOC still make sense?
For days I have been struggling to find an answer to Ralf Hilgenstock’s question on LinkedIn as to whether “MOOCs” are still a contemporary term these days. He refers to my newsletter from last weekend, in which I succinctly cite Udemy and Coursera as examples of MOOC platforms that continue to be successful. Now Ralf asks:
What distinguishes these platforms from Linkedin Learning, Domestika or Zeitakademie or other online course providers?
Should we simply stop calling these platforms MOOC platforms? Or am I missing something here?
As I was very busy, I kept putting off my answer. But in the back of my mind, I wondered whether there was something to the idea and how I could best respond to it. One thing quickly became clear: I couldn’t answer with a simple “Yes, you’re right” or “But no, there’s a significant difference”. I tend to look at the details too much.
Given my lack of time, I simply passed the question on to ChatGPT in the hope of finding a quick answer that was acceptable to me. But that was not the case. His comments cannot simply be wiped away, but in my view they do not get to the heart of the matter. I am posting the short summary here:
- Accessibility:
- MOOCs: Often free or very inexpensive, accessible to everyone.
- Online course platforms: Access may be subject to a fee, limited by registration, purchase or subscription.
- Target group and purpose:
- MOOCs: university-level education for all, often offered by universities and colleges.
- Online course platforms: Wide range of courses, from professional skills to hobbies, not necessarily academic.
- Structure and content:
- MOOCs: Structured like university courses with a fixed timetable, lectures and exams.
- Online course platforms: More flexible schedules and pace of learning, courses can be created by subject matter experts or users.
- Interaction and community:
- MOOCs: Promote a learning community through discussion forums and group projects, large number of participants.
- Online course platforms: Varying degrees of interaction and community, focus on individual learning experience.
Okay, so the approach could initially be roughly differentiated. But it is the perspective of the platforms, the providers, not from the point of view of the people who want to benefit from the offer.
At this point, adult educators would also point out the difference between xMOOCs and cMOOCs (and possibly other differentiations).
Just a very brief, quick clarification: xMOOCs run as knowledge transfer on MOOC platforms. cMOOCs are motivated by connectivism and are geared more towards peer-to-peer learning that is qualitatively saturated in terms of content.
What I have to point out in this context: The German Wikipedia article on connectivism was created by me and my students at HTW Berlin in the winter semester of 2008/09, when we worked together through the great e-learning 2.0 course by Downes/Siemens over the course of a semester.
And just for your information: The Corporate Learning Community’s new cMOOC on the Future Learning Organization starts today (!). Over the next 4 weeks, 4 different companies will each present one of their internal learning approaches. Always live on Mondays and then in p2p style in a discursive format. Free of charge, of course!
But even this pedagogical differentiation is now too meta for me. From the point of view of “learners” who are as self-determined as possible, I would want to differentiate further.
Learning opportunities that convey
There are media-pedagogically and didactically designed online courses with learning objectives, learning opportunities and examination formats with a “certificate” that learners can work their way through. This enables you to acquire certain basic knowledge in a particular field and to present this knowledge to interested parties in a documented form.
These can be small units that are offered on any learning platform – for example, AI prompting for beginners or similar. With a clear investment of time, you can book in there and go through it, learn what you want and use it to develop wherever you want.
However, they can also be larger learning modules that may consist of several online courses – for example, the basics for developing your own GPT model. Such learning units, which have been plumped up into so-called microcredentials, can be credited towards a degree course with ECTS points. And some want this.
The distinction made by ChatGPT may well apply here: online course platforms are more for topical, pragmatic offerings – MOOC platforms are more for theoretically and academically sound units that qualify people for “higher” tasks via (self-)reflection and discourse.
And such offerings are needed in a variety of ways and in different depths of content and media quality.
Learning opportunities that inspire
Now let’s take the connectivist part (see above) a little further and imagine: The dynamics of global social contexts and changes in the labour market are so high that well-founded approaches will never be able to realize the relevant knowledge and how to deal with it in a timely manner. Nowadays, people need to be able to reflect and orient themselves – also with a view to their personal development.
However, since most people spend a lot of time in different contexts, it is rarely beneficial to expose oneself to a more extensive learning program, of which perhaps only 20% is currently relevant for one person. It is therefore important to be able to decide for yourself what will help you best and fastest at that moment.
Depending on the objective, desired level of content, cost and topicality, it makes no difference whether you choose an online course platform or a MOOC platform. It is important to know yourself and then acquire what you need.
Sometimes the somewhat larger, more theoretical version of a lecturer on a MOOC platform may be more helpful. However, a carefully prepared online course from a detailed expert is often much more effective because they really know the subject matter better. This does not require a large, pedagogically sophisticated discourse space, but rather a how-to guide. It is then an individual just-in-time infusion for the rapid acquisition of practice-oriented know-how for self-learning.
MOOCs, on the other hand, can serve a different, social component as an eventization of learning opportunities. This can be done via a common starting point. Or a sophisticated peer-to-peer functionality (e.g. at Coursera) to bring large masses of learners into exchange and thinking.
And that concludes my thought process – for the time being 😉
Conclusion
At their best, MOOC platforms enable the eventization of learning by bringing people together and engaging them in a shared exchange. After the online live event, which does not necessarily have to run 100% simultaneously for all participants, MOOCs become a classic online course. From my experience with the Work 4.0 MOOC, which was planned and carried out as a 7-day event, the transformation of a MOOC into an online course only works to a limited extent. It is stale and for latecomers it is not clear how the system was intended for the live event.
So, in a nutshell:
Yes, “MOOCs” still have their justification. And are different from online courses. Unfortunately, the eventization and the social component are too rarely considered and emphasized. But it is precisely in this way that they can create social development through a social community of learners.
And that makes it clear:
Udemy is an online course provider, comparable to LinkedIn Learning, ZEIT-Akademie etc. – only somewhat lower-threshold and more appealing for people without an academic degree.
And Coursera is rightly the (!) MOOC platform because they have technologically driven the eventization of learning the furthest.
