A labour of love: A critical examination of the ‘labour icebergs’ of massive open online courses

Abstract

In recent years, Massive Open Online Courses (commonly known as MOOCs) have made university-level courses at prestigious universities available to anyone with an internet connection. The academic discourse around MOOCs has become polarised, with advocates claiming all kinds of democratising benefits and critics bemoaning the upcoming ‘disruption’ of higher education. To date, there is little written about the process of making MOOCs, what labour is involved and who pays (or not) for this labour to be performed. This chapter critically examines the complexity of the labour involved in making MOOCs, in particular labour that becomes invisible (Star and Strauss, 1999). This chapter raises important questions about the true cost – for individuals and institutions – of making university courses ‘free’ and ‘open’ online.