The Future of Education: What Will Be the Impact of Online Learning?

“Educators have to get creative to increase MOOC completion rates. You have to create the right incentives, environment, context, assignments and experience. You have to turn the passive viewing experience into a situation [that is] engaging, motivating [and] encourages further learning.”

“If you want to increase completion rates,” says Quacquarelli, “you’d have to create some tests or barriers to entry for candidates to determine their level of commitment to completion. But I’m not sure that’s a desirable goal. If the purpose of a MOOC is to make higher education widely available, then so be it.”

“I remain a supporter of the blended model, where some interaction with peers and faculty is incorporated into programs. However, we may see that technology really does, at some point in the future, replicate the bonding and intense inter-activity that face-to-face learning creates in the traditional world, ” Quacquarelli speculates.

“I love it. I think this is probably going to be a major trend. University lecturers could have the option to give students high-quality MOOC lectures to watch at home, and then the regular classroom can become a forum for discussion. I see great potential here,” Wind asserts.

“The corporate world is more willing to experiment with new ideas and teaching methods, in part, because they always need better knowledge and their businesses are increasingly based on smart ideas and employee engagement,” says Wind.

“These top-tier universities will need exceptional, courageous leaders to lead the change,” Wind states. “Otherwise, there’s the temptation to stick with the status quo since it’s worked so well in the past. But in the rest of the higher education space, I expect fundamental changes. Hopefully some leading research universities will move forward too.”

“I believe educational institutions should draw on expertise from around the world, not just who happens to be sitting in the classroom at a certain point in time,” says Quacquarelli. “There’s a real opportunity to use technology to draw together leading experts from around the world to contribute to a blended learning environment for post-graduate and research students. This isn’t limited to teaching and learning — it could be relevant for research projects as well. I think that’s truly interesting and pushes the envelope.