Sebastian Thrun y el supuesto giro (¿o fracaso?) de los MOOC
La revista de negocios Fast Company publicaba el pasado 14 de noviembre un artículo sobre el cofundador de Udacity Sebastian Thrun, en el que éste se lamenta de que los MOOC no estén funcionando todo lo bien que él esperaba, y además anuncia un cierto cambio de rumbo:
Udacity's Sebastian Thrun, Godfather Of Free Online Education, Changes Course
"We were on the front pages of newspapers and magazines, and at the same time, I was realizing, we don't educate people as others wished, or as I wished. We have a lousy product," Thrun tells me. "It was a painful moment." Turns out he doesn't even like the term MOOC.
El tono general del texto es laudatorio, incluso hagiográfico. Se rebaja el alcance de las famosas profecías de Thrun: "En cincuenta años sólo quedarán diez universidades en todo el mundo". Eso ya ni se menciona, ahora tan sólo se trata de revolucionar la formación profesional, no la educación superior tal como se entiende en las universidades.
Como era de esperar, el artículo ha suscitado todo tipo de respuestas críticas. Destacamos por su relevancia las siguientes.
En primer lugar, la de Audrey Watters, que duda de que haya ningún cambio real e insiste en los peligros de una mala pedagogía, aunque al parecer no se dirija ya frontalmente contra las universidades:
Why We Shouldn't Celebrate Udacity's "Pivot"
I’m not sure that this is, as some have suggested, a "pivot." Udacity has always been clear that it's focused on engineering education. The startup struck partnerships with tech companies early on - it has sought to be a provider of high-(industry-)demand CS curriculum and a job recruitment pipeline.
[...]
And me, I have still more cause for concern, as I am not willing to shrug off lousy educational practices simply because they occur outside the walls of formal education. Many professors have been quite vigilant about criticizing MOOCs foray into higher ed; I think it's just as important to keep that up if MOOCs want to conquer vocational ed instead. If MOOCs - short videos, multiples choice quizzes, and robo-graders - offer bad pedagogy, then that means they offer bad pedagogy for everyone, everywhere. To ignore bad pedagogy simply because it occurs in settings outside the humanities or outside the college curriculum is elitist and wrong.
En segundo lugar, la de George Siemens, uno de los creadores originales de los MOOC como sistema de aprendizaje abierto y conectivista, antes de que las universidades de élite de los USA e inversores privados se apropiasen la idea y la manipulasen conforme a sus intereses:
The Udacity pivot, showcased (a latin term meaning "spin") as a good thing in the Fast Company article, is the equivalent of Obama doing an Affordable Care is Working media tour. Make no mistake - this is a failure of Udacity and Sebastian Thrun. This is not a failure of open education, learning at scale, online learning, or MOOCs. Thrun tied his fate too early to VC funding. As a result, Udacity is now driven by revenue pursuits, not innovation. He promised us a bright future of open learning. He delivered to us something along the lines of a 1990's corporate elearning program.
Finalmente, Martin Weller insiste en la experiencia de cuarenta años de la Open University en la educación a distancia y en la importancia de la tutorización y el apoyo al estudiante. Además, dice, ahora va resultando obvio que los MOOC tienen más sentido en el seno de las universidades y como parte del continuo de los recursos educativos abiertos.
Stop me if you think you've heard this one before
Anyway, where does this leave us? Does it mean MOOCs are dead? Not really. It just means they aren't the massive world revolution none of us thought they were anyway. And it also suggests that universities, far from being swept away by MOOCs, are in fact the home of MOOCs. You see, MOOCs make sense as an adjunct to university business, they don't really make sense as a stand alone offering. One wonders if the likes of Shirky will be writing about how wonderful the university model of open education is. So in the end, far from being a portent of doom of the university model, MOOCs are a validation of universities and their robustness.