He vist una interessant entrevista a Jeff Maggioncalda, el CEO de la companyia Coursera, al web campustechnology.com. Coursera és una de les principals empreses que van començar a treballar, vertebrar, innovar i facilitar els MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), i ara està aprofitant el seu know-how per oferir la seva tecnologia a les universitats, per a tota mena de cursos.
L’entrevista és rellevant perquè parla del futur dels MOOC, de què es paga i per què es paga, de com treballen per a diverses universitats, de com tenen un bon coneixement de l’avaluació de les competències dels estudiants, etc.
Em quedo amb aquesta pregunta, encara que paga la pena llegir tota l’entrevista:
CT: What is the big picture for MOOCs right now?
Maggioncalda: I think there are many dichotomies that get created. Is it online or on campus? Is it a degree or a micro credential? Is it a MOOC or something expensive? Is it live or is it asynchronous? What we see is just a huge blending. Right now we offer MOOCs, we offer specializations (packages of those single courses), we offer master tracks, which are those modules that count towards a degree. We only have three right now, but we’re going to be building up that library. And then we have degrees now.
I talk to people who take who take a MOOC on blockchain. All they wanted was about 10 hours of very high-quality instruction. They didn’t need a degree. They literally just wanted to learn the material. Those kinds of people are not going to buy a degree. Then there are people who get a degree, and you’re like, “Why didn’t you take a bunch of MOOCs?” Because the degrees help them get a better job.
So long as we believe there will be a range of needs from very, very rigorous and that ends up in a high-pedigreed credential to smaller learning that nevertheless teaches you something that’s really important, there’s absolutely no reason that MOOCs won’t exist and degrees won’t exist with a link between them. I think it’s going to be a continuum.
Una mica és la raó per la qual vaig començar (però no pas acabar) el meu primer MOOC, sobre Intel·ligència Artificial. Senzillament, perquè tenia ganes de saber-ne més, d’aprendre’n.