The plan

1. Five myths

2. Debunking

3. Your

rebuttals or

offerings

• User numbers never took off

• Management lost community’s trust

• .edu applications slow to grow• “ support problematic• The ghost town experience• Gaming won instead

No business model

Little academic integration

“ employer acceptance

Low pedagogical quality

So what next?

MOOCs as textbooks

as targeted training materials

as microclasses

https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers1414.pdf

“the majority of faculty do not take advantage of advanced LMS capabilities that have the potential to improve student outcomes”

“Some colleges that have shelled out licensing fees -- or at least implementation and upkeep costs -- to give instructors the opportunity to track attendance, post learning materials and grades, start threaded discussions and collect submitted work have found that some faculty are uninterested in using many of these tools.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/03/21

/traditional-colleges-aim-boost-lms-usage

“[N]early 75 percent of all faculty use the technology at least to make course documents accessible to students...”

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/11/opinion/steven-bell/looking-for-clues-how-

faculty-use-and-think-about-technology-from-the-bell-tower/

“…[T]he reality is that few faculty use much beyond the most basic functions. Not even two-thirds use it to record grades and just over half use it for communication with students. It makes the LMS seem like a costly syllabus delivery system.”

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/11/opinion/steven-bell/looking-for-clues-how-

faculty-use-and-think-about-technology-from-the-bell-tower/

K-12 preparation, heavily shaped by class, deeply determines higher ed outcomes

Some student life structure exacerbate class differences

“how Midwest University and many other large state schools currently organize the college experience systematically disadvantages all but the most affluent…” (3)

“82 universities have endowments worth more than $1 billion… Those 82 universities, mostly private research universities, own about 70 percent of all college and university endowment wealth…”

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/27/7924109/harvard-endowment-vineyards

“Teens aren’t addicted to social media. They’re addicted to each other,” [dana b]oyd says. “They’re not allowed to hang out the way you and I did, so they’ve moved it online.”

http://www.wired.com/2013/12/ap_thompson-2/

What other myths need busting?

What did we learn by mythbusting today?

Mythic image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaumescar/7826851112

MOOCthulhu: Audrey Watters

LMS market: Phil Hill

Otherwise as indicated on slides by URL; all others mine.