Massive online courses continue to draw lots of attention. However not all of the attention is good, many instructors, administrators, and even users have come to question the value of the MOOCs in some forms.
- Administrators wonder how they’re going to give credit for MOOCs,
- Instructors wonder how their intellectual property rights are going to be protected
- Students worry about whether or not they are going to be able to complete the move and if they will actually benefit from MOOCs.
So, are having relatively low completion rates as troubling as it sounds for MOOCs?
Cons to having a low completion rate:
- Low completion rates are troubling because it makes it difficult to say that MOOCs actually are massive.
- If this is an indication they are not scalable in some respects, much of their attractiveness goes away.
- At some point MOOCs will have to monetize (people will have to pay) their product. While they will still be open in terms of admission, they won’t be ‘completely’ open as in free. How will the high drop out rates impact the cost structures? It can’t be good.
Pros to having a low completion rate:
- The pros too little completion is that maybe the blue represents the new phase in higher education’s evolution.
- Instead of taking courses in a structured agrarian calendar people drop and get what they need and leave the rest.
- It really fulfills the mission of the right educational opportunity at the right place at the right time.
Do you think the Pros outweigh the Cons? Let us know.
