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Myths about MOOCs

Diana Laurillard (2014) explains why unsupervised learning is not the solution and is not viable.

1.The “idea that “content is free” in education” is a myth. For instance, web content has to be created by an individual who knows how it relates to a learning outcome, and their work is not free. In addition video content needs to be specially developed and funded. 2. “Students can support each other” is a myth. For example for it’s course on copyright, Harvard Law School uses the edX platform and “limits enrolment to 500 because it has 21 tutors” and advertises “high-quality legal education depends, at least in part, upon supervised small-group discussions of difficult issues”. 3. Another myth is that “MOOCs solve the problem of expensive undergraduate education or educational scarcity in emerging economies”. This is the most interesting myth of all as it’s not true, in fact, over 60% of students who register in MOOCs already have a degree! 4. Lastly, “education is not a mass customer industry: it is a personal client industry”. Education is about learning concepts and skills that takes time and requires guidance, which is not scalable.