Massive open online courses are shaking up higher education
Massive open online courses are seen as a game-changer in education. But they worry the establishment, even as more universities rush to introduce them, writes Katherine Forestier
The numbers, at least, are massive. One million users signed up to 16 University of Pennsylvania online courses; about 83,000 for the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's course "The science of gastronomy" and 23,000 for Chinese University's "The role of renminbi in the international monetary system".
No lecturer could ever imagine reaching out to so many students, unless they double as a television star like Manchester University's physicist Brian Cox. Massive open online courses, or Moocs, are being heralded as a game-changer in higher education by the likes of Simon Marginson, the Australian higher education guru now based at the Institute of Education in London, or as a tsunami sweeping through the sector, by Li Fei, vice-president at Wuhan University.
Will our ideology be affected? Will we be influenced by Westerners
In the past year, Hong Kong and mainland institutions have joined the bandwagon. HKUST and Chinese University ran their first online courses and, in the mainland, Tsinghua, Peking and Shanghai Jiaotong universities were among those to team up with the US platforms Coursera or edX.
Towards the end of the year, the Open University in Britain launched FutureLearn, in partnership with a consortium of British and international universities, as well as the British Museum, British Library and British Council. Dozens of courses are now running.
