MOOCs: frontal teaching was yesterday

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs for short, are changing university teaching worldwide. They go far beyond online courses or lecture recordings. How useful is their use at German universities? An article by Oldenburg economist Christoph Böhringer
BY CHRISTOPH BÖHRINGER
In 2011, computing scientists Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, both professors at Stanford, offered a course on artificial intelligence. So far, so normal. What was unique, however, was the way in which they organised their course: not as a classroom seminar, not as a frontal lecture, but as what has since become a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) - an online course that was open to interested users worldwide. Thrun and Norvig achieved an almost unbelievable reach. More than 160,000 people took part in their course.

But what exactly are MOOCs? They are not simply filmed lectures in a lecture theatre, nor are they conventional podcasts. The video sequences in MOOCs are usually only seven to twelve minutes long and are interspersed with quizzes or other short learning units, for example. They are videos filmed in small sequences in the studio, without a public audience. Other important components of MOOCs are supplementary course readings, exercises, essays and discussion forums. Conventional university online courses or lecture podcasts are typically only open to students - but not to all educational backgrounds in all countries. MOOCs open up new target groups Another new feature of MOOCs - at least for some of the courses - is that students and lecturers can communicate with each other more intensively than with conventional distance learning courses via radio, video or the internet. This is made possible by proprietary software that has been further developed in the context of the newly developed MOOC platforms. Improved internet connections for more and more people around the world are certainly also playing their part.

The best universities in the world - including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as well as Stanford - have been using MOOCs since Thrun and Norvig's course. In Germany, the spread is still low. However, experts here have been discussing the opportunities and risks of MOOCs controversially since 2013. Much is still unclear when it comes to their actual use. For example, the question of how MOOCs can be recognised as part of a regular university degree course. Very few universities have so far allowed external MOOCs to be recognised as credits. The targeted inclusion of external MOOCs could open up great opportunities, especially for smaller universities or subjects. MOOCS could also create more opportunities for a general studies programme or, in smaller subjects, expand the range of courses offered within the university - and thus increase the quality of education.

However the question of whether and how MOOCs can generate revenue is resolved, the use of high-quality, globally accessed MOOCs could pay off for universities simply because of the high degree of dissemination, the development of new target groups and the associated high reputational effects. MOOCs also create new incentives for quality improvements in teaching - the concept of flipped classrooms can strengthen the culture of discussion. The use of MOOCs, for example to learn standard content, also creates scope for more research-based teaching. However, MOOCs must not be used as an excuse to cut teaching budgets.

MOOCs can also be useful for students. This is because they offer more flexibility in terms of time - studying is more compatible with academic appointments or childcare. And prospective students? MOOCs can give them an insight into the subject before they start their studies, enabling them to make better-informed educational decisions. Around a third of first-year bachelor's degree students at German universities do not complete their studies. We therefore need innovative ways to avoid expensive "false starts" in the education system with possible long-term psychological consequences.

German universities in particular, with their strong focus on face-to-face teaching, will have to adapt if they do not want to lose their increasingly mobile students. It certainly does not make sense for every university to produce its own MOOCs. However, not just a few universities, as has been the case to date, but all universities should be looking closely at new models for combining MOOCs and other forms of learning. Prof Dr Christoph Böhringer is a university lecturer in economic policy and a member of the Expert Commission for Research and Innovation (EFI) set up by the German government. His article summarises the chapter "MOOCs as innovations in education" from the Expert Commission's annual report.