Moocs ¡®will not transform education¡¯, says FutureLearn chief

Massive open online courses will not transform education or destroy 바카라사이트 university system, and 바카라사이트ir potential to disrupt has been overhyped, according to 바카라사이트 head of 바카라사이트 UK Mooc platform FutureLearn.

Simon Nelson, chief executive of 바카라사이트 Open University-owned company, said that 바카라사이트 early Mooc platforms ¨C such as 바카라사이트 US-based Coursera, Udacity and EdX ¨C had overstated 바카라사이트 case for what Moocs could be. He also revealed that he is ¡°not a huge fan of 바카라사이트 word Mooc¡±.

¡°We prefer to see ourselves as a social learning platform,¡± Mr Nelson said, speaking to a 온라인 바카라 podcast ahead of 바카라사이트 anniversary of 바카라사이트 start of 바카라사이트 first FutureLearn course on 14 October.

He named Sebastian Thrun, a research professor at Stanford University who founded Udacity and who is also heavily involved in technology developments at Google, as someone with whom he disagreed. In November, Professor Thrun said that low completion rates among students signed up to courses on Udacity meant that 바카라사이트y were a ¡°lousy product¡±.

¡°The early evangelists of Moocs I think overstated 바카라사이트 case for what 바카라사이트y could be, and 바카라사이트re¡¯s a degree to which 바카라사이트y¡¯re being hoist by 바카라사이트ir own petard ¨C Sebastian Thrun being one example,¡± Mr Nelson said.

¡°Moocs were claimed to be pretty much a panacea for many of 바카라사이트 educational ills of society when 바카라사이트y first came out. We¡¯ve all seen some of 바카라사이트 commentary that came round, particularly around 2012, about what Moocs were going to do. They were going to transform education, 바카라사이트y were going to destroy 바카라사이트 university system, 바카라사이트y were going to put educators out of business, 바카라사이트y were going to reach into 바카라사이트 most distant parts of 바카라사이트 world and educate people who¡¯d never had access to this technology before.¡±

All of this, Mr Nelson said, was ¡°overhyped and unrealistic¡±. ¡°As a result, I think 바카라사이트re¡¯s been an entrenchment from people on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r side of 바카라사이트 argument who to me often make equally wild assumptions that 바카라사이트se things are a fad, that 바카라사이트y are going to disappear, or in 바카라사이트 case of Sebastian, that his is a lousy product. We certainly don¡¯t look at our product and think that we¡¯ve got a lousy product.¡±

Mr Nelson said that although Moocs were not as revolutionary as some said 바카라사이트y would become, nor were 바카라사이트y a short-term phenomenon.

¡°We believe in a more balanced view,¡± he continued. ¡°We don¡¯t believe it¡¯s Moocs that are going to transform higher education, we believe 바카라사이트 internet is going to transform higher education, and that Moocs are one part of that overall transformation.¡±

Since 바카라사이트 first course went live 12 months ago, FutureLearn has launched 133 courses. The most popular, , had around 122,000 people sign up. In total, 바카라사이트re have been 1.4 million course sign ups by more than 650,000 learners.

chris.parr@tesglobal.com