While the potential of millions of people all collaborating on a single topic or subject in a shared learning environment is extremely exciting and revolutionary to say the least, the reality (at least for today) is far less likely to spark that collaborative brilliance that the origination of the MOOC platform initially promised.
MOOCs are a concept that is still struggling to find a market niche within the corporate world. In the traditional education space MOOCs have a massive following with students and degreed individuals participating in classes with tens of thousands of participants, all of which are working via discussion boards, video lectures, and assessments or assignments to further their understanding of the topics being addressed. In the corporate world MOOCs are not getting the traction that we are seeing in Academia. The main reason for this is that a MOOC stands for ‘Massively’ – a lot of people, ‘Open’ – free, ‘Online’ – web based, ‘Course’ – learning content organized according to instructional design principles.
It is very difficult for any but the largest of corporations to have a following around a subject that they are willing to give away to the masses for free. Often, organizations get a small following of interested participants who quickly lose interest as the collaboration and engagement aspects within the environment being to lose their initial luster. Unanticipated costs to the corporation start to rise as the benefit of giving free training to users becomes difficult to justify. It is very difficult to fulfill or even justify the requirements of being a MOOC from a corporate perspective in the current market.
All is not lost however and there are models that have proven successful within some organizations so if your heart is set on a MOOC there is still a case to be made to launch one. I would however take a deep long look at your business requirements beforehand and evaluate whether a MOOC is a requirement needed to solve your issue, or whether some very good, targeted learning can accomplish the same (refer to this article entitled: Is it a MOOC or just eLearning).
MOOCs are going to be around for a while and their evolution and adoption levels will fluctuate while the market determines the most effective models. There are a large number of learning and engagement models within the Learning and Development field and MOOCs are just one of many that are being implemented and with limited success. As of today MOOCs have yet to prove their effectiveness in relation to some of the more established models of online engagement and retention, or in Market Disruption. In my opinion MOOCs are riding the wave of public awareness however they have yet (at least in the corporate world) to make their case for a rush to adopt.