MOOCs and the Future of Nursing

Abstract

NOT ONLY ARE MASSIVELY OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOCS) PART OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION CONVERSATION, THEY ARE ALSO DISCUSSED IN THE BLOGOSPHERE AND THE POPULAR MEDIA. For example, on April 25, The Charlie Rose Show on PBS featured a conversation with four guests representing different perspectives: Dr. Anant Aragwal, CEO of EdX and MIT professor of computer science and artificial intelligence, Dr. Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania; Joel Klein, former schools chancellor for New York City and now CEO of Amplify, Inc.; and Thomas Friedman, columnist for the New York Times and author of The World Flat. I was very inspired by this conversation (visit www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12897) and would like to share some thoughts with you. Rose started the conversation by asking: Is this an idea whose time has come? The answer was a resounding yes. Friedman described MOOCs as able to deliver the best teaching from the best teachers from a whole range of universities to people around the at the speed, scope, scale and price that was simply impossible just a decade ago. Think about what this could mean to higher across the globe and the future of nursing. Agarwal, describing MOOCs as a partial accelerator for learning, discussed how learning analytics could be used to personalize the learning experience. Klein took it a step further, proposing that we now have data to inform our teaching and to personalize instruction. Gutmann mentioned that MOOCs are not focused on what we teach but on what students learn and how they learn. All guests spoke to the amplification of access, not only across the globe, but to allow those who may not qualify for the college of their choice to still gain knowledge. Agarwal described this as flipping the funnel; instead of filtering many students through a funnel to be admitted to college, we are now democratizing education, allowing more people access to knowledge and the best teachers. He thinks of as a basic human right and likes to imagine a in which students from 162 countries learn with each other and work to resolve global issues in areas such as health care. Although there was agreement that faculty are key to the MOOC movement, Gutmann reminded us that there are always skeptics who challenge ideas and inventions. She used the example of Socrates, who mistrusted the intervention that gave the impression of wisdom rather than wisdom itself. That intervention was writing, which Socrates called disruptive of thinking, as memorization was a key to wisdom. In contrast, MOOCs have led some teachers to become more excited about teaching and finding new ways to help students learn. The faculty role is being transformed from knowledge disseminator to mentor, a guide for student through their learning process. As Agarwal stated, MOOCs put education front and center; faculty are becoming rock stars. They also provide, Gutmann noted, constructive competition to motivate faculty to think of new methods of student engagement and to learn how to be a Master Teacher. I took three major messages away from this conversation. First, Friedman described MOOCs as being at the Alta Vista stage. (Alta Vista, designed by Yahoo, was one of the first search engines; it was displaced with the rise of Google.) As Klein put it, We are in the early innings of a game that is just beginning, a bold experiment that has enormous opportunities for Second, Friedman metaphorically described the next steps as a 401k world where students will need to make defined contributions and everyone will need to pass the (referring to the legal bar exam). In his blog, Walter Russell Mead speaks of a of stuff learned versus time served (visit http://blogs. the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/04/22/washington-blessesstuff-learned-vs- time-served-degree-program/). Not all students will be able to participate in this model of education. …