Discussion Questions

1-The article mentions that “online learning is gaining a firm foothold in universities around the world”, but is there a possibility that online learning will be the primary form of education for students in the future (and/or replace traditional learning higher education institutions)?

2- Do you think it is necessary for an institution to allocate a significant amount its budget into incorporating and promoting technological advances? Or do you think it is wiser for an institution to use more of its money on other areas such as keeping tuition affordable for students, financial aid, scholarships, research, hiring professors, student clubs/teams etc.?

3- The article mentions that in the coming years, universities will have a greater presence overseas to put education within reach of many more individuals all over the world. This seems very beneficial, but the growing number of incoming foreign students to higher education institutions in America can lead to an increased amount of competition. How can this effect students living in America? Will they have decreased chances of getting into the colleges/universities of their choice? Do you think the competition between foreign students local students entering institutions of higher education in America will become fierce enough, that limits will have to be put in place with regards to the number of foreign students admitted?

4- Since technology seems to be playing a large role in the future of teaching methodologies in higher education, will professors that are less tech-savvy have greater difficulty finding jobs? How important a role will the technology aspect play in the hiring of incoming professors?

5-Do you think online courses should be used as a supplement to face-to-face classes, or do you think they should serve as the primary method of education?  For some students online courses may be the only option (either they are working, nontraditional students, single mothers etc.), but will the fact that there is less face-to-face communication with instructors hinder their learning process?

6-How do we make sure that students are actually learning the material and are not cheating on online courses? If people take multiple online courses offered by different universities/institutions, who keeps track of their transcript and degree progress, and can their credits earned be easily transferred?

7. Is there really a way to measure how much a student “learns” from his/her institution of higher education? At the university of Michigan “The measure of achievement was based on a common time unit, and the accumulation of the set courses and time units

constituted a complete bachelor’s-level education,” do you think this is sufficient? Should exit exams be put in place (and even then, can that really test how much knowledge you’ve acquired? and is that a successful indicator of how you’ll do out in the career world?)?

8. Much public opinion calls for a wider variety of college courses more appropriate to the diverse interests of high school graduates. Online courses can provide students with the knowledge they so desire to study at their fingertips, but with the increase of online learning, is there still a way to ensure that students learn a common standard?

9. If the use of online education is to become a prevalent form of education in the future, what will these mean for faculty members that depend on teaching in traditional settings (in a college/university) as a means of their livelihood?

10. David Noble had mentioned in his 1998 essay “Digital Diploma Mills, Part II” that “in the wake of the online education gold-rush, many have begun to wonder, will the content of education be shaped by scholars and educators or by media businessmen, by the dictates of experienced pedagogy or a quick for profit? What’s your opinion with regards to this statement?

11. Why do you think it is that most of the largest online universities are for-profit?

Do you think that in the long run, online learning is a cost-effective, successful form of education to prepare students for life in the workplace? What does an online education offer to students that a traditional classroom-based form of education cannot, and vice versa? Do you agree that a hybrid programs incorporating online and face-to-face instruction may be the best form of education?

12. If students are solely engaged in online learning, it would seem that one of the downfalls would be that they have limited access to academic advisement/guidance from knowledgeable faculty members as well as less networking opportunities. Is there a way to incorporate this aspect into online learning?

13. If an institution does not offer any online courses, could this deter students away from attending the college/university? Overall, how large a role does the offering of online courses play when students are choosing a university/college to attend?

14. What role did the economy play in the growth of online courses? Do you agree with the statement, “As the economy improves, some predict a possible decline in online enrollments,” or do you think that the growth of online courses in the future will continue regardless of this factor?

15. Why is it that courses offered by MOOCs have more than three-quarters of students dropping out? Are the students truly being prepared sufficiently to apply their knowledge and skills that they’ve learned from their online courses to the outside world?

16. Are there courses that cannot be successfully taught through MOOCs? What are the current admission criteria for MOOCs? There is some movement towards elite MOOCs, do you think this is a good idea?

17. The “Ethics of MOOCs” article poses a good question: If an institution is successful in its bid for the institution accepting MOOCs for certain courses, will employers know who took the face-to-face course as who took the MOOC course? Will students in the MOOC course have access to the same services and be subject to the same course and university policies as their non-MOOC counterparts?

18. To help ensure that the person who signed up for a MOOC and has completed the work and taken the exam, should there be on-site testing put in place?

19. How do you solve the issue of giving credentials to MOOCs? Some people enroll is MOOCs for personal improvement and aren’t really looking for verification of content mastery, while others want the official credentialing to testify that they have successfully completed the course, how do we solve this issue?

1. “Sonoma State University’s Mr. Scalise adds: ‘Small campuses often cannot compete with larger universities when it comes to IT budgets, so we have to find other ways to differentiate ourselves, through niche offerings.’ What can colleges, that are not able to have a strong focus on applied research, offer corporations as incentive for partnership? [Economist Intelligence Unit (2008) The Future of Higher Education: How technology will shape learning.]
2. What unit can we use to measure and evaluate student learning instead of credit hour? [Shedd, J. M. (2003) The History of the Student Credit Hour ch 1 in New Directions for Higher Education #122.]
3. For whom are online courses the perfect match?
4. How expensive is the anti-cheating software used for online test taking? Students always find an innovative way to cheat and bypass the rules, is the amount of money invested in these software really worth it if there is a good possibility that they won’t work? [Eisenberg, A. (2013) Keeping an eye on on-line test takers. New York Times, 3/12/13.]
5. Have students who have completed MOOCs, learned and applied the knowledge and skills? (Have they actually learned anything?) [Cuban, L. (2013) “Irrational exuberance”: the case of MOOCs, http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/irrational-exuberance-the-case-of-the-moocs/]
6. If MOOCs starting charging their students for access, do you think the number the students using MOOCs would increase, decrease, or remain the same over a given period of time? [Robbins, J. (2013) The ethics of MOOCs Inside Higher Ed, 3/25/2013.]
7. From 1993 to 2007 full-time administrators grew by 39% while faculty members grew by 18%. Moreover, spending on administration grew by 61% whereas for faculty it grew by 39%. Why are those in administration receiving a higher pay than those in faculty? Moreover, why is the rate of hiring administrators higher than the hiring rate for faculty members? [Essig, L. (2013) It’s MOOAs, not MOOCs, that will transform higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 3/28/2013.]
8. “Bok’s assertion implies that there is generally too little reflection on pedagogy within the university.”  Other than using an online programs as the medium to teach, what are some other ways to better the quality of traditional higher education?  Why would faculty, who claim to believe that online is inferior to classroom instruction, actually recommend online courses to their students? [Stokes, P. (2011) What online learning can teach us about higher education. Ch 7 In B. Wildavsky, A.P. Kelly and K. Carey, eds. Reinventing Higher Education: The Promise of Innovation.]

1. Should students be “trained” to use computers and online tools in K-12 classes so that when they go to college they will have the same experience and knowledge?
2. Should institutions move in a direction where classroom setting is replaced by online classes at the convenience of one’s home or is it necessary to maintain a physical interaction with classmates and professors?
3. Is the funding for technology in schools too expensive of an investment considering that there is always something better out there after some time?
4. If an institution was to an entire class to be taken online, how would one stop cheating, plagiarism, or even know that the person registered for the class is the one taking the online course?
5. Do you feel that Ivy League institutions will be slow to act on the technology “bandwagon” since they have a model/ system that they have been following for years and years and might be hard for them to change?
6. Do you think that online classes will catch on to HE and that the courses will carry over and earn students credits in accredited institutions?
7. Are online classes more viable for for-profit institutions?
8. In one of the articles it was said that students could take a test on the first day of class and if they passed that they would earn credit for what they passed on and then take classes on areas that they showed they were weak on. This is much like a challenger refresher class that EMTs take and the model works there so what would be the drawbacks of integrating this model into HE?
9. If you could choose the model of education you were going to take, would you choose the traditional classroom model, the online model, or the hybrid model?
10. If an institution was paying for computers and technology to enhance learning, would you be willing to pay higher tuition to receive access to all of those things?

1. What are the precautions being taken to ensure that online courses are not “gamed” by students. With the lack of a professor, it is very easy to cheat on these tests. On the same note, do these online courses hold the same weight against university courses if there is an academic vulnerability?

2. If there is a greater shift to online learning, how will research and lab work be carried out? Will students have to go to a designated area to apply themselves? Will research become a “thing of the past?”

3. With free learning websites such as khanacademy, what is the benefit of enrolling in a MOOC? Is it the validity of having a professor give the lessons and grade? Will the MOOC business be threatened with free, open-source alternatives

4. One of the Chronicle articles states,
“Regardless of their initial level of preparation … students were more likely to fail or withdraw from online courses than from face-to-face courses. In addition, students who took online coursework in early semesters
were slightly less likely to return to school in subsequent semesters, and students who took a higher proportion of credits online were slightly less likely to attain an educational award or transfer to a four-year institution.” Are MOOCs just a trending phenomenon or do you believe that they offer a low-cost, educational alternative that is equivalent to a face-to-face college education?
Sub-Question: Are MOOCs just a business looking to get low-income students for low-cost prices, or are they genuine in quality?

5. The article by Thomas Friedman states, “We demand that plumbers and kindergarten teachers be certified to do what they do, but there is no requirement that college professors know how to teach. No more. The world of MOOCs is creating a competition that will force every
professor to improve his or her pedagogy or face an online competitor.” Do we actually believe this, or are professors less responsible for teaching in MOOCs? Without face-to-face interaction, a professor may also be able to get away with poor teaching. Furthermore, isn’t there already competition between colleges based on professor quality?

Could MOOC’s be a viable alternative for students ill prepared for college-level work?

Hybrid programs are shown to have promising results but are quite expensive. Are they worth the cost?

How do MOOC’s affect the traditional role of professors as course creators/facilitators? Do they limit professors or free them?

Will MOOC degrees have as much power as traditional degrees? Should they?

Could/Should Higher Education institutions use MOOC’s as prior learning assessments to help competency based evaluations?

Who governs MOOC’s?

Though some MOOC’s have no monetary fee, they can be personally invasive. Are free MOOC’s really free/worth it?

1. Do you think MOOCS will internationalize the education system and create a winner takes all education system? Will this inadvertently harm the majority of teachers in favor of helping the students and a select few of extremely talented teachers?
2. The Economist notes, “Corporate-academic partnerships will form an increasing part of the university experience.” Do you think that a corporation singlehandedly would be able to make a successful, academically respected college? Currently, universities such as the University of Phoenix are not necessarily considered “prestigious.” Do you think successful branding will be able to change this in the future?
3. Anne Eisenberg of the New York Times notes that college instructors are beginning to rely on online proctoring services to maintain online academic integrity. One such service is ProctorU. Do you think that the main reason employers have been reluctant to fully accept online certificates is the perceived lackadaisical oversight during online exams, and will an increase in student surveillance during exams lend external perceived credibility to these programs?

4. In, “Catfished”, Rob Jenkins argues that students will not be able to be monitored  effectively when they use MOOCs. Do you think the technology of ProctorU will be justas effective as a live proctor? Or will students always be able to cheat with relative ease in such a system?

5. In, “Innovations in Higher Education? Hah!” Ann Kirschner argues that colleges are             too complacent in the face of emerging, potentially disruptive technologies. Colleges won’t             really have a direct incentive to change. Do you think this is giving the  independent            MOOCS a major advantage in penetrating this market, and do you think  by the time the colleges respond it will be too late?

6. Do you think MOOCs could significantly reduce the cost of college, while significantly   improving the quality of education if implemented properly? Do you think that MOOCs  will challenge primarily community colleges or can they even disrupt the elite college  infrastructure?

Most of the articles described MOOCs and or internet courses in the context higher education as a whole. Yet, is there not an inherent difference between teaching, for example, a beginner’s (Core) class in math, philosophy and advanced biology? Why can we not teach the simpler and more test based classes online and more discussion based classes traditionally?

Kirchner’s described the value of American college degrees to be falling in world rankings? Then what are other countries’ higher education systems doing better?

Though it would  seem ideal for a university to focus solely teaching its students, it does not take a great amount of cynicism to argue that that is not possible or even desirable. Higher education is also the scene of networking, cultural enrichment and possibly even a right of passage. Online teaching can ever really get to that level. For at least these reasons, higher education in the traditional form is probably here to stay. So what is all the hype about?

Is a professor teaching a free MOOC really different for a religious figure or mass entertainer? The professor spreads knowledge (it is hoped) to a mass audience that he cannot physically connect on a person to person level. In the end, the audience may better understand the workings of the human body or the context of the Peloponnesian War but with the vast majority not finishing the course (and those finishing generally not getting academic credit) how is this really different from achieving enlightenment or enjoying good music?

The Economist study noted that many people in the private sector felt that the quality of higher education was sliding. Could this simply be the case because they are hiring more people in for jobs that require a certain intelligence and technological experience (due to massification and changing employment patterns)? Is there a limit to what mass education can do, due to overall intelligence level of a population?

4/3:

 Economics of Higher Education:

1)  If colleges and universities are receiving less government funds, and tuition rates continue to spike, what will this mean for the future of higher education?

2)   What does the “muddling through” approach refer to? How are faculty members affected by this?

3)   Does the cost of a college have any correlation to its quality of education? What are your thoughts about the results of the Wabash National Study, which show that there is little correlation between the amount of money spent on education and its quality?

4)   When outcomes-based funding is in place in a state, around what percentage of the state’s budget is allocated based on outcomes?

5)   Peter Thiel believes that education is overpriced, and people are not getting their money’s worth. Do you agree with this statement?

4/10:

Technology:

1)   How do you think face-to-face interaction with a professor affects a student’s performance in the class?

2)   Why is it that many students in community colleges end up failing or withdrawing from online courses?

3)   Do you think that students should first have to demonstrate success in traditional classes before being permitted to take online classes?

4)   With all the ways to ensure that no one is searching the web for answers or getting someone else to take their exams for them, do you think that this will be even more successful at preventing/catching cheating than in a traditional classroom setting?

5)   “Administers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your salaries.” What was the article, “It’s MOOA’s, not MOOAC’s, That Will Transform Higher Education,” proposing? How would this affect certain aspects of higher education, such as cost?

6)   It is often stressful for students to be closed out of a class that they need due to its high demand. California plans to allow these students to take the courses online instead. What are some benefits of this? What could be the downside of this?

4/17:

Who goes to college/Access to Higher Education:

1)   Why is it becoming increasingly important for more individuals to obtain college degrees in the United States?

2)   Many students admitted into college, especially minority students, aren’t well-prepared and tend to do a lot more poorly. Should we be waiting until they reach college to “fix” them with remedial classes? Or should this be addressed in K-12?

3)   Why are people so concerned with the decrease in the amount of students majoring in humanities?

4)   What would be better? Students working during college and not being able to fully focus on their classes? Or going into debt by taking out loans?

5)   Affirmative action- should race be one of the factors in determining acceptance into college? What effect would it have if these minority groups weren’t given this same chance to go to college? Is it even a good thing to admit certain individuals based on race if they are not as ready as most non-minority groups?

6)   What is your opinion on legacy admissions?

4/24:

Liberal Arts Education:

1)   What is the point of a liberal arts education? What advantages does it have compared to if students were to just study for their professions?

2)   What would happen if more students decide to go to vocational schools as opposed to receiving a liberal arts education?

3)   How can the system be changed so that less students view the liberal arts classes that they’re forced to take as pointless?

4)   If students are receiving a liberal arts education, and yet employers are still complaining about them not being ready for the workforce, what else could be done about this?