{"id":44248,"date":"2014-01-09T11:53:41","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T16:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=44248"},"modified":"2014-01-10T20:21:24","modified_gmt":"2014-01-11T01:21:24","slug":"reflections-on-moocs-aint-over-rhee-weise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2014\/01\/09\/reflections-on-moocs-aint-over-rhee-weise\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on “MOOCs ain\u2019t over” [Rhee-Weise]"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOOCs ain\u2019t over<\/strong> <\/a>— from christenseninstitute.org by\u00a0Michelle Rhee-Weise<\/p>\n

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Over the last month, journal headlines have been heralding the death of massive online open courses (MOOCs). You could almost hear the sigh of relief from the academy. With Sebastian Thrun himself acknowledging the \u201clousy\u201d quality of the MOOC product, told-you-so skeptics have been giddily pointing out that Udacity, in its failure to disrupt higher education, is now moving on to vocational training.<\/p>\n

Sadly, what audiences are missing is that Thrun\u2019s shift to workforce training is precisely what has the potential to disrupt and severely impact traditional postsecondary education.<\/strong> <\/span>We at the Christensen Institute have already written extensively about how MOOCs were not displaying the right markers for disruption (see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>), but we became more hopeful as they started to offer clusters of courses. Coursera announced Foundations of Business with Wharton, while edX and MITX introduced the Xseries in Computer Science as well as Supply Chain & Logistics. These moves appeared to map better to employer needs and what we describe as areas of nonconsumption<\/em>. In their turn away from career-oriented training, colleges and universities have unwittingly left unattended a niche of nonconsumers\u2014people over-served by traditional forms of higher education, underprepared for the workforce, and seeking lifelong learning pathways.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Udacity\u2019s most recent offering of a Big Data and Data Science track illustrates perfectly how the company is establishing its niche in the space that most traditional institutions have been avoiding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

…<\/p>\n

If a company like Udacity can do a better job of attending to the skills gap and facilitate learning pathways for students that simultaneously build a strong pipeline of qualified candidates for companies, we will soon see that the creation of such programs to meet the demands of the labor market will put enormous pressure on our traditional institutions of higher education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From DSC:<\/span><\/em>
\nThis is yet another article that illustrates some key points, at least in my mind:<\/span><\/p>\n