Since 2012, MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) has become popular all over the world.Thousands of people learn one course together, which brings about a great change in teachingpattern and learning model. It is universally believed that MOOC can contribute to the balanceddevelopment of education, educational equity, innovative teaching pattern, and enhance the quality of education.
At the same time, the popularity of MOOC also creates a great challenge for the higher education around the world, and some people even claim that MOOC will bring an end to some universities. But it is also believed that the functions of MOOC have been exaggerated. This article proposes the opinion that MOOC is a marvelous opportunity for the development of higher education. Meanwhile MOOC is not omnipotent; it also has its own limitations. The higher education could get lots of benefits from the spreading of MOOC, combining relative theories and technologies, rearranging the educational and administrative process, and the Education Process Reengineering would be finally achieved in this way.
After a specific analysis of the impact of MOOC, this paper presents that MOOC may help to achieve that process reengineering in the following aspects.
The reengineering of the teachers’ role is the first aspect. MOOC’s ability to bring thousands of people to study together could engender a scale effect. Under such circumstance, it is possible to invite experts in other fields to finish the professor’s projects together, such as the TAs, experts on courseware design, teaching designer, art designer and so on. This process will contribute to the diversification and the professionalization of teacher groups. At the same time, some teachers will also have the psychological sense of “loss” without doubt when they have to be TAs instead of professors.
The reengineering of course pattern is the second aspect. With the help of MOOC, the average universities could become competent at the design of some difficult courses. They can also cooperate with other universities to form a teaching community, which means that when a teacher gives a lecture in one university, students could simultaneously “attend” this course in different places. Students can even study in MOOC directly, and get the credits through official examinations. To some degree, the teaching-testing separation will be achieved. What’s more, if Flipped Class Model could also be utilized, the innovation of teaching pattern will achieve a complete success.
The reengineering of organization is another aspect. The classes in traditional universities are basically taught by their own teachers, but MOOC and other systems would possibly socialize the process of “non-core teaching”. For example, it will not be necessary for some universities to set up the department of public basic courses or other similar departments, because their students could “attend” those courses taught by professors from other universities. It may help some teachers to achieve professional development, and it can also make the organization focus on the core affairs.
The last aspect is the reengineering of administration. With the aid of Big Data, Learning Analytics and other advanced technique, we can make analyses of that massive data in the learning process. In this way, the hidden principle might be discovered, and we can provide some specific suggestions for students. As a result of the data, the traditional assessment mode by plain experiences and numbers could be changed. Besides the benefits for the learning process, those technologies could also help to specify the administrative management, and thereby it will bring about a revolutionary change to the school management (learning management included). |
