ABSTRACT
MOOCs were introduced with various promises: democratizing access to education, solving long-lasting social problems of access to education for social groups traditionally excluded from it, and providing millions of workers around the world with convenient reskilling and upskilling opportunities. These promises sounded irresistible, and the media hype surrounding them was indeed convincing. In 2012, MOOCs were named the year’s most important discovery, and for a certain period, it seemed probable that they would soon be competing with universities and higher education systems. However, as we know from this book (and from many other academic publications which have taken the MOOC phenomenon seriously), such promises proved unfounded. A growing body of empirical research showed that the MOOCs were not targeting exactly the typical persons in need; rather, they attracted highly-educated, male, white learners living in wealthy countries or neighborhoods. Moreover, these were also the learners who could perform better and, consequently, benefit the most from this form of cheap lifelong learning. Lastly, the MOOCs did not replace universities at all: universities are still secure and rather englobed MOOCs for various purposes. The attractive elite universities leveraged MOOCs to enhance their global reputations; some others outsourced continuing vocational training to the MOOCs; while others (mainly in Europe) use MOOCs for experimenting with learning models.
