Digital change: How MOOCs transform the educational landscape

Abstract

MOOCs are one of the most prominent topics to emerge in higher education in the past few years. Institutions that have launched successful MOOC initiatives have much to learn from each other, just as universities interested in evaluating the viability of a MOOC initiative at their institution may find lessons from others valuable for their decision-making process. This chapter explores the history and implications of MOOCs from the perspective of an institution that maintains active partnerships with multiple MOOC providers, producing numerous MOOCs every year. We outline a number of challenges, opportunities, and issues facing the adoption of MOOCs at an institution of higher education and provide recommendations for consideration. The chapter specifically addresses how MOOCs have transformed and can continue to transform the landscape of higher education, and how institutions of higher education can respond with agility to a rapidly changing landscape of tools and approaches. Based on the institutional experiences of the Technische Universität München (TUM) in developing and supporting a MOOC initiative, supported where relevant by current scholarship, we provide commentary and analysis on current public perception of MOOCs as well as a hypothesis, based on the Gartner Hype Cycle, about the future trajectory of MOOCs.