Call for Papers – Extended
until January 31st 2015
CFP:
Massive
Open Online Courses and Higher Education: Where to Next?
(Edited
collection, abstracts due January 31 2015)
Edited by
Dr Rebecca Bennett,
Murdoch University and
Dr Mike Kent, Curtin
University
Since the first MOOC
was launched at the University of Manitoba in 2008, this new form of the massification
of higher education has been a rollercoaster ride for the university sector. Sebastian
Thrun of the Udacity MOOC provider initially predicted that the disruptive
influence of the MOOC would leave only 10 institutions providing Higher
Education in fifty years’ time (Leckart 2012). However, just one year later, he
abandoned the higher education space to focus on corporate training and admitted
that his company’s MOOCs in higher education were often “lousy” (Schman 2013). Despite
the shift in focus, MOOCs are still regarded by university leaders as having a disruptive
influence on the sector. Whether this disruption benefits or harms higher
education institutions is a complex and contested conversation, with multiple
stakeholders and perspectives to consider.
MOOCs have been
criticized for their high rate of failure and their behaviorist pedagogical approach (Bates
2012), and others see these new models of education as a threat to the prevailing
structure of universities (Grove 2013; Shirky 2013; Zhu 2012,). Indeed, some of
the criticism leveled at these platforms seems aimed at online learning and
teaching in general. More positive readings point to the high number of
students who have completed units of
study in these environments, despite the low pass rates (Daniel 2012). MOOCs
have also been celebrated for their potential to provide access to higher
education for a whole new range of participants and as an effective vehicle for
the promotion of institutions, academics and courses; and the university
experience, as a whole.
This volume seeks to
explore the future of the MOOC in higher education by examining what went right,
what went wrong and where to now for the massification of higher education and
online learning and teaching. We are looking for chapters that address these
and other areas relating to the rise (and/or fall?) of MOOCs in higher
education.
·
Case studies
of past and/or present:
o
Failures
and/or successes
o
Best
and/or worst practice
o
Student
perspectives
o
Academic
perspectives
o
Business
perspectives
·
Possibilities
and pitfalls for the use of MOOCs in the future
o
Pedagogical
implications
o
Practical
applications
o
Economic
consequences
o
Analytics
o
Data
mining
·
Any
other perspective - conceptual or empirical – that fits into the title theme.
Submission procedure:
Potential authors are invited to submit chapter
abstract of no more than 500 words, including a title, 4 to 6 keywords, and a
brief bio, by email to both Dr Mike Kent <m.kent@curtin.edu.au> and Dr
Rebecca Bennett <Rebecca.Bennett@murdoch.edu.au> by January 31 2015. (Please indicate in your proposal if you wish to
use any visual material, and how you have or will gain copyright clearance for
visual material.) Authors will receive a response by February 20, 2015, with those provisionally accepted due as
chapters of no more than 6000 words (including references) by May 20 2015.
About the editors:
Dr Mike Kent is a lecturer in the Department of
Internet Studies at Curtin University. Mike’s research interest is in higher
education and particularly online education his edited collection (with Tama
Leaver) An Education in Facebook was
published by Routledge in 2014. His
other research focus is on people with disabilities and their use of, and
access to, information technology and the Internet. He recently co-authored,
with Katie Ellis, the monograph Disability
and New Media (Routledge, 2011).
Dr Rebecca Bennett is a lecturer, academic language
and literacy, in the Centre for University Teaching and Learning at Murdoch
University. Her research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning includes
recent papers on digital pedagogies and intercultural communication at
university. Her other research focuses on critical analysis of popular cultures.
Her edited collection (with Angela Jones) The
Digital Evolution of Live Music is currently in press (Chandos Publishing)
and due for release in January 2015.