MOOCs and the future of education

YES: NO doubt education is ripe for revolution.

In the 21^st century, we are still using an educational model unchanged since antiquity: A teacher stands in front of a classroom and lectures to a captive audience. There may be a question or two and some discussions here and there but the mode of delivery is the same: teacher talks (professorial "sage on the stage") and students listen.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) define the most serious effort to-date to break free from this model. A MOOC is "massive" because it can scale to enrol tens of thousands of students. The technology and the platforms are in place, something that distance-learning programs of yesteryears lacked. (Over 100,000 students from around the world – including Bangladesh – enrolled in a recent statistics MOOC that I took.) It is "open" because anyone with an Internet connection can sign up for free, at least until now. "Online" refers not just to the delivery mode but to the fact that all student-teacher-peer interactions also take place on the Web. "Course" tells the student that mere listening to video lectures will not do; rigorous assessment, including assignments, tests, and perhaps even certificates and degrees, are also involved.

The three dominant players in the MOOC universe are Coursera (http://www.coursera.org), Udacity (https://www.udacity.com) and edX (https://www.edx.org/).

Coursera was founded in April 2012 by two Stanford professors and initially included courses from Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan and Princeton. It has since then expanded to include over 70 national and international universities, offering about 400 courses ranging from mathematics and computer science to economics and the social sciences. There are close to 4 million "Courserians" in the world as of now.

Udacity is also the brainchild of two Stanford professors and was launched in January, 2012. Its focus is narrower compared to Coursera's, covering mostly mathematics, computer science, programming, robotics and web development.

edX is a joint venture by M.I.T. and Harvard and was launched in May, 2012. It works with several colleges and universities, including Berkeley and Rice. The company is organized as a federation, with each member institution having complete control over its MOOC production.

Can MOOCs level the playing field of higher education? Can they provide universal, low-cost, virtual classes that can empower anyone willing to learn and do something creative with what they have learned? Will MOOCs become synonymous with "knowledge without borders?"

It is exhilarating to think that anyone, anywhere, can access the same lectures from the best minds in the field, be they from Caltech, Stanford, Harvard or Oxford. The question is: Will the virtual classroom eventually replace the traditional classroom?

Although it appears to be a logical question, it is wrong and irrelevant.

Despite the giddy predictions of a few technophiles and reporters, no one believes that education can, or should, go 100% online. While MOOCs have proven their worth, their full potential is realized when complemented by learning that takes place in traditional classrooms. This is the "hybrid" mode, a natural extension of which is the increasingly popular "flipped classroom," an idea first promoted by Salman Khan of the Khan Academy. (http://www.khanacademy.org/). In a flipped classroom, students watch video lessons at home and do their "homework" in class, guided by teachers and mentors.

Sebastian Thrun, a co-founder of Udacity, has asserted that in 50 years there might be only 10 higher-education institutions left in the world, and only the best brains in the field will create video lectures. Other Universities, if they exist, will only channel MOOC content, providing local guidance and "coverage" for their students.

This is hyperbole. Traditional educational institutions will never go away, although their importance is likely to diminish.

But MOOCs are already making their mark in unexpected ways, the most impressive of which has been to reduce the number of students wait-listed for core classes at well-known institutions. This is a universal problem. Think of how many students fail to get admission to Dhaka or Engineering University because of lack of institutional capacity. If virtual classes were accessible, accredited and recognized by other educational institutions, businesses and employers (big ifs no doubt), the logjam could be decisively broken.
The serious academic problems plaguing California's vaunted three-tiered system of public colleges and universities, for instance, illustrates this. The University of California, the California State University system and the nation's largest community college network annually educate 2.3 million students. But enrolment has been declining precipitously in recent years because of demand exceeding supply at each campus in the system. Students are forced to wait for months, if not years, to enrol in core classes and ultimately drop out in frustration.

Recognizing the urgency of the problem, California Governor Jerry Brown launched a pilot project involving MOOCs that is already bearing fruit. Under Brown's prodding, Udacity teamed up with San Jose State University to create customized for-credit remedial and college-level algebra and introductory statistics courses. The retention rate and the quality of work by the students for these courses have been nothing short of astonishing. "I hope this will be a game-changer," said Afghanistan-born Mohammed Qayoumi, president of San Jose State University and one of the driving forces behind the partnership with Udacity.

MOOCS are not without problems. Thousands of students from around the world sign up but drop out as soon as challenged by the first MOOC tests and quizzes. The dropout rate, in fact, hovers around 90%! However, with the recognition of the certificate of completion of MOOCs by Universities and companies, the retention rate is increasing dramatically.

Any Bangladeshi student eager to pursue higher studies abroad, or even work for companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter or Microsoft, should consider completing MOOCs in their fields of interest. Peruse the course catalogs of the Big Three (Coursera, Udacity, edX) and select a few advanced courses in fields ranging from programming and statistics to web development and business management, and more. Make sure you complete the courses and get certificates of completion. (Online classes demand far more self-discipline than traditional classes.) Certificates of completion of MOOCs can be valuable additions to your resume. Companies like Google and Facebook are beginning to recognize these as proof of subject matter expertise, not a surprise, considering that one of the founders of Udacity is also a vice president of Google!

MOOCs are here to stay. What we are currently seeing is only MOOC, version 1.0. By the time version 2.0 and 3.0 show up, it is almost certain that MOOC degrees will be as valuable as traditional degrees. (One benefit of MOOCs in countries like Bangladesh will hopefully be the diminishing of political patronage from academia). This will truly level the playing field. A student from a remote village in Bangladesh can potentially compete with a student from metropolitan Dhaka, or even from Harvard or Stanford. The only differentiation will be not what the students know but what they can do with what they know.

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Hasan Zillur Rahim is an educator and a technologist working in Silicon Valley. His specializes in advancing education through technology.