INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT, MOOCS AND COMPETITION

It's important to emphasize that this heightened attention to the quality of instructional content is not the result of changing ideas of best practices for pedagogy or even demands by students for better quality content, at least not directly. Rather, it's the result of the new context in which the course is experienced. Typically, a university-level course is experienced and evaluated as part of a larger set of experiences and resources that constitute the traditional university experience: a credential system, residential experiences, a program of study, and so forth. Pulled out of this traditional context, the MOOC is evaluated on the basis of other criteria. What matters most to the student in this new context is what can be learnt, full-stop. So, the determinants of value for the learner fall more heavily on factors such as the clarity of exposition, the degree to which the course inspires interest in the learner (and maintains that interest), and how quickly and easily learning occurs. While these factors are certainly important in the traditional university context, they are less important and are often outweighed by other factors, such as obtaining a degree.