Soltan said she doesn’t see MOOCs as a panacea for higher education, and didn’t hedge when asked about the potential threat posed by online classes that can be taken by tens of thousands of students using a series of lectures recorded one time.
“A lot of professors consider MOOCs threatening to their livelihood, and they have every reason to be nervous,” Soltan said, adding that campuses in dire fiscal straights could very well turn to MOOCs as a cost-saving measure. “I can see a university with financial troubles cynically deciding to go with MOOCs. … I think [faculty] should feel threatened in some circumstances.”
No MOOCs for credit
Opposition to MOOCs varies from campus to campus, and while four in 10 higher education survey respondents said their schools would adopt some sort of MOOC over the next few years, most said the courses didn’t pose an immediate threat to in-person classes.
Two-thirds of respondents to an Enterasys survey said MOOCs will “never replace traditional, residential classes,” with 5 percent saying MOOCs would, in fact, replace traditional higher education within five years.
GW’s approach to MOOCs, unlike many colleges and universities, have not involved a side discussion about the massive courses offered for credit at some unspecified date. Berman said it would remain that way.
“There is no plan to offer MOOCs for credit,” he said. “We don’t see it as a way of replacing our in person program or something that would be credit bearing. There’s absolutely no move toward using these courses to generate revenue, nor will there be.”
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