July 17, 2012

MOOCs, Plus a Sign Off

I’m moving on from the UW and wanted to leave a note here on the blog about how much we appreciate any and all readers and to say that you can look forward to even more authors and topics in the near future!

As I exit, the news of the UW linking up with Coursera has hit the press. While MOOCs offer amazing new opportunities for higher education across the world, they are nowhere close to being more than a complement to the education universities currently provide, as was outlined in a recent OPB brief.

As we naturally get caught up in the high hopes for the transformative power of technology in what is considered a very tradition-bound industry, I recommend that anyone interested read a recent book by Columbia Professor of Literature, Andrew Delbanco. College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be  does not so much propose solutions for the myriad outstanding questions about the future of higher education, particularly public higher education, but does a fantastic job of reminding us how and how much higher education has evolved in the United States over time and, most importantly, what education actually is. Any efforts to alter or replace our current delivery model must be grounded in a clear understanding of that model’s origins, essence, and outcomes.

It’s been a pleasure creating and maintaining OPBlog. As always, stay tuned here for the latest from from OPB.

Jessica Thompson