To Mooc or Not to Mooc

Scarcely a week goes by without coverage in the UK and international media about the latest MOOC revelation. Despite some significant initiatives in the dotcom era, online learning has somehow never delivered on its promise to revolutionize education. To MOOC or Not to MOOC focuses upon six institutions and tells the story of their engagement with MOOCs. This book looks at four different organizations, each of them unique in their structure and strategy, but with similarities of focus and approach to other institutions. The decisions that they took, what they did and importantly what they didn't do, and why will be discussed. Chapters draw together and analyse the data and analysis to draw out some more general advice for institutions, and discuss how strategic and operational decision-making can enable the institution to make a timely choice about trends such as MOOCs and their function. The book concludes with a future look at MOOCs and explores some of the possible trends that may impact upon higher education, focusing in particular upon online learning and educational technology.

Sarah Porter is currently an academic visitor at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford where she is researching how universities can better adapt to their current and future challenges and to embrace the opportunities that are offered to them through new developments such as MOOCs.