Mooc-ing the discipline: Tensions in the development and enactment of a massive open online course

Abstract

In the current university context, academics are required to respond to multiple and competing demands which orient both away from their disciplinary field, and inwardly towards its own norms and development. In this chapter I examine the tensions between these inward and outward facing agendas, drawing on a case study of the re-articulation of an undergraduate biological sciences subject into the form of a massive open online course (MOOC). The case study forms part of a broader PhD project which is investigating a select number of online courses (both MOOCs and for-fee online courses) being developed across two universities, with a focus on the thinking and assumptions informing the process of curriculum development. The discussion points to some of the tensions and challenges in simultaneously adhering to disciplinary conventions and engaging in outward-facing conversations where the taken-for-granted disciplinary rules may not apply.