Massive Open Online Courses - Will They Create Greater Opportunity Or Inequality?

by Peter Doyle

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have the potential to be a “disruptive innovation” which will change higher education. This book examines the likely outcomes of the introduction of MOOCs for students and faculty. Previous distant learning efforts using radio and television failed to have a major impact on the structure of higher education. MOOCs are different. They are available free to anyone in the world with a broadband connection, the interactive capabilities of the internet adds dimensions not available in earlier technological attempts, and they arrive at a time when the current model for higher education seems
out-of-step with the demands of modern society. MOOCs will not destroy brick and mortar universities or community colleges, rather their introduction will lead the higher education establishment to modify the premise of what a liberal college education entails, to one that matches the needs of the modern world. Those needs include life-long learning programs, flexibility in time and place by means of “blended” instructional environments.

69 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 5, 2014

About the author

Peter Doyle was born in Maroubra, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. He worked as a taxi driver, musician, and teacher before writing his first book, "Get Rich Quick", which won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel. He has published two further books featuring protagonist Billy Glasheen, "Amaze Your Friends" and "The Devil’s Jump", and a fourth, "The Big Whatever", is slated for publication in October 2014. He is also the author of the acclaimed "City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs 1912–1948" and "Crooks Like Us". In 2010 Doyle received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award.