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So why now?

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Why should MOOCs appear right now?

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Why is it different from previous
revolutions in educational technology?

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Well to me, there are two trends.

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The first is that information is more and

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more accessible, and becoming cheaper, or
even free.

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For instance, via Google Maps, anyone
anywhere in the world can now

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access maps that just a few years ago
would be considered military grade.

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Through Google Books anyone anywhere in
the world

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can access the content of books relatively
easily.

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Maybe some part of it if the content is
copyrighted.

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MOOCs come at the right time for this.

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They simply make accessible to a much
wider

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audience something that was so far pretty
closed.

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University level material, about very high
level

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topics, they open up the doors of
universities.

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Note that I said course material, not
books, this is different.

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Course material helps to bring someone up
to speed, in some

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very pointed discipline where they might
not exist text book yet.

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The value added by the MOOC, is that

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some of this information is pre-processed
by the professor.

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The professor stands between all that
information and

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the student to help the student navigate
it.

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Also, the student benefits immediately
from an instant study group.

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And like if they go to the library to
borrow a book.

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Now this begs the question of why would

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anyone go through the effort of taking a
MOOC?

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Well there are simply many reasons.

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One of them is just fun, some people are
just curious.

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But one of them touches on the second
reason why MOOCs arrive now.

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Well pretty simply, it used to be that you
could do a whole career in one company.

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A few decades ago, that was possible but
that's certainly not true anymore.

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It also used to be that you could do a
whole career

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out of one degree, and that's becoming
less and less possible now.

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Essentially, in the modern professional
world, you need to adapt.

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More and more, what matters is the
individual's ability

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to navigate this new landscape by
acquiring new skills.

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Obviously MOOCs can help with that.

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The big question that is left with MOOCs,
is how to translate these new skills into

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meaningful certificates, so the individual
can actually leverage

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this training to a new job more easily.

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If you're a university professor, this is
true for you as well.

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You need to adapt yourself to the

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revolution in your profession, that are
MOOCs.

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If your tenured, you actually have no
incentive to do this

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except if you want to do a better job when
teaching.

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If you are not tenured yet the reality is
that you have every

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disincentive to follow this evolution, and
rock the boat at your own institution.

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Because you are always at risk for being
assessed

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using older criteria that don't account
for the new technologies.

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Now, I need to clarify one more thing now.

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To me, the fact that all this education

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is distributed for free and can benefit
people.

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All over the world in myriads of ways, is
absolutely, phenomenally great.

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And it will dramatically affect society as
well.

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I don't want to downplay this.

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But it's really important to understand
that this is

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purely and entirely a side effect, a nice
side effect

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but it is a side effect, of the main
commercial

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focus, which is higher education and
employment in developed markets.