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The world of education, workplace learning, talent development - in short anyone and everyone connected with learning in some way - are talking, debating, evaluating, exploring, and generally trying to wrap their brains around this phenomenon called MOOCs. It's now a given that MOOCs are here to stay. It's becoming evident that despite the high dropout rates, critiques of being elitist and accessible to only a handful, and other similar drawbacks, MOOCs have become firmly entrenched in the collective psyche of the academia as well as workplace learning.
MOOCs, by virtue of being open and online, bring together a diverse set of people around a common topic. And as we have been seeing time and again, diversity is the cornerstone of innovation. If society and educators can get the model right, MOOCs have a very high potential to forge connects and facilitate collaboration among widely diverse sets of individuals at a global level.
MOOCs with their core courses supported by discussion forums offer a unique opportunity for diverse minds to come together around a common theme. While the current focus is on how many individuals are completing the MOOCs they enrol in, how many are being certified and if organisations are willing to recognise and reward a MOOC certification, what if the focus was to shift? How would a discussion forum in a MOOC evolve if participants were asked to share their individual perspectives on the topic, to think as widely as possible? I agree that for discussions to have both width and depth in any meaningful manner, the facilitators would need to be skilled at conducting debates and discussions online, encourage participation and cull out hidden voices; but that lies in the realm of implementation.
Given that MOOCs have the ability to bring together global participants, can they move to the next level to induce and inspire innovative thoughts and discussions? MOOCs break down - at least to some extent - the economic and regional barriers. Unlike universities where strict entrance criteria filter out aspiring students, MOOCs do not have such filtering mechanism. Moreover, because the filtering mechanism in most universities operate at a cognitive level, they automatically filter out learners with different abilities, thus moving a step closer to removing diversity - maybe not of colour, race or religion - but of thought.
Devoid of specific filtering out mechanisms, MOOCs have the advantage of being more democratic than most universities. And, as such, welcoming to a wider variety of individuals. Can MOOCs then lay the ground for innovation? If the fear is that online communities can't innovate, and individuals must be in the same space to have truly meaningful discussions and work together, the creation of Linux denies that claim. It showed how passionate people could come online and make innovative breakthroughs.
I believe MOOCs have the latent possibility to create strong communities, not only individual learners. Rather than only exploring how MOOCs can benefit individuals, if the focus were to shift to how MOOCs can cultivate communities across various disciplines, get people to create together, and bring to bear the power of diversity, we would perhaps see a dramatic shift. MOOCs are an outcome of the post-industrial era and are a representation of a profound shift in outlook. MOOCs can leverage the power of connectivity and offer individuals a way to customise their learning experience.
The author is Sahana Chattopadhyay, deputy head, instructional design and consultant at Tata Interactive Systems. Re-printed with permission.
Link: https://www.linkedin. com/pulse/article /20140923091044-39313651-moocs-forging-diversity-and-innovation?trk=prof-post
Link: https://www.linkedin. com/pulse/article /20140923091044-39313651-moocs-forging-diversity-and-innovation?trk=prof-post
