What Modularity Means for MOOCs - Harvard Magazine

Reporting to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) at length for the first time since he was appointed vice provost for advances in learning last September, Peter K. Bol highlighted shifts in the landscape for the much-publicized massive open online courses (MOOCs). At the December 3 faculty meeting, Bol noted that: People who register for free MOOCs, like those offered on edX, differ from conventional students, and are not using them like conventional courses. Students enrolled in higher-education institutions seem disinclined to take advantage of not-for-credit MOOCs. Faculty members are increasingly interested in using edX technology to produce “modules”—short units covering a single subject, background information, a problem set, or elements of a larger course—rather than entire courses, which entail an enormous investment of their time and energy. http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/12/harvard-mit-online-education-views-changing