Trends in Education

The first trend that my partner and I discussed was the rise in popularity of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC’s), and who stands to benefit the most from them. [ See : MOOCs and the Claim of Education for All: A Disillusion by Empirical Data  in the resources section. ]  Like many people, I was initially optimistic that this style of delivery would democratize higher education somewhat; however, this does not seem to have been the case.  Rose and Ganz conclude “The empirical data indicates that MOOCs are mostly used by people who already have a higher educational status.” Also,  I think that there may be a sense, for many people, that the MOOC courses have less intrinsic value because they are inexpensive and easy to sign up for, and that the student is left to fend for themselves.