MOOC learning and impact on public higher education

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), a new unique open learning style, are made possible by recent developments in gamification, increased bandwidth, mobile devices, and technology. This has allowed the creation of self-mediated learning, which combines these technological developments to allow individuals to experience high-bandwidth applications and simulations online. With the 2013 credit recommendation made by the American Council on Education (ACE), MOOCs are now primed to have great impact on traditional higher education business practices. While various open learning initiatives have been around for decades, the growth, availability, and popularity of MOOCs are poised to impact public higher education academic models. The MOOC courses benefit from the rising dissatisfaction in the cost and value of a higher education degree creating a watershed moment for higher education. While much is being learned about MOOCs and their capabilities, this research seeks to understand how higher education technology leaders decide when an academic technology, such as MOOCs are ready to be implemented on campus. This qualitative inductive research seeks to understand, through narrative inquiry, how a senior higher education technology leader makes decisions in a rapidly evolving cyber and academic landscape where they must execute on institutional strategic plans that reference technology broadly. This research seeks to understand how senior technology leaders work in and with their institutions to decide whether to take a proactive or reactive stance to a new technology using the recent MOOC as a fixed point.