PierreAntoine Ullmo

Tag: MOOCs

  • This world today is a MOOC

    Donna Hightower © all rights reserved
    Donna Hightower
    © all rights reserved

    “This world today is a MOOC”. Today’s entry isn’t a tribute to Donna Hightower’s hit, but a reflection on what we say about MOOCs these days.

    Some MOOC oracles already declare the end of the wave. John Daniel for instance, who endlessly tours the world to speak about higher education and MOOCs (30 conferences this year so far!) has positioned himself as a “disillusioned” MOOC believer. He predicts that “the media interest in MOOCs has passed its peak and MOOCs have a past rather than a future”. Hard to believe, isn’t it?

    (more…)

  • MOOCs for a happy few

     

    Why do MOOC students disengage?

    A first striking piece of evidence about MOOCs – and related experts – is that we can all talk about them but very few know exactly what they are, even fewer have registered for a MOOC, and almost none of us have completed one. Let’s have a look then at the terrible completion rate of MOOCs .

    Only 1% of enrolled students completed the first-year college MOOC on physics at Georgia Tech. In an interesting blog post published last September, Karen Head from the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology asked herself: is retention an accurate measure of success?

    (more…)

  • MOOCs mania: a speculative bubble?

    results of a survey by the french Ministry of Education
    Results of a survey (Les usages pédagogiques du numérique) by the French Ministry of Education

    A few days ago, I participated in a workshop at the DLD Festival in Tel Aviv about the “business model of online education” at the invitation of the World Economic Forum. The same day, the French Ministry of Education released the results of a survey that showed that only 5% of French students and less than 20% of their teachers knew precisely what it was about.

    How can you think of a business model for MOOCs when your potential users don’t know what they are about?

    (more…)