Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a recent post "Re:
'Laptop U' Misses the Real Story" [Hake (2013)]. The abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT: Joshua Kim in his "Inside Higher Ed" report " 'Laptop U'
Misses the Real Story" at <http://bit.ly/11b4tNd> correctly pointed
out two problems in Nathan Heller's otherwise exemplary New Yorker
article "Laptop U" at <http://nyr.kr/10MmItb> (paraphrasing):
1. "The online and blended education world, really the higher ed
world where most of us spend our days, fails to make any appearance."
2. "If in fact the real story is the rise of blended and online
learning, then [that story] will go completely untold if MOOCs are
the sole focus."
In my opinion, two other problems are that "Laptop U":
3. Fails to emphasize the fact that MOOCs, like most Higher Ed
institutions, concentrate on DELIVERY OF INSTRUCTION rather than
STUDENT LEARNING to the detriment of their effectiveness - - see
"From Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate
Education" [Barr and Tagg (1995)] at <http://bit.ly/8XGJPc>.
4. Ignores the failure of MOOC providers to gauge the effectiveness
of their courses by pre-to-postcourse measurement of student learning
gains utilizing "Concept Inventories" <http://bit.ly/dARkDY>. As I
pointed out "Is Higher Education Running AMOOC?" [Hake (2013) at
<http://yhoo.it/12nPMZB>, such assessment would probably demonstrate
that MOOCs are actually MOORFAPs (Massive Open Online Repetitions of
FAiled Pedagogy). There would then be some incentive to transform
MOOCs into MOOLOs (Massive Open Online Learning Opportunities)
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REFERENCES [URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 22 May 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. "Re: 'Laptop U' Misses the Real Story" online on the
OPEN! Net-Gold archives at <http://yhoo.it/13JDqKM>. Post of 22 May
2013 16:26:51-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to
the complete post are also on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at
<http://bit.ly/186zuKT>.