MOOCs: the (Loch Ness) Monster of Higher Education?

 “MOOCs are the monster under the bed!” boomed a Dean at an academic conference just over two years ago. “And soon, they are going to come out and get us all!” Two years on and the idea of revolutionary change in higher education seemed to have been mitigated somewhat. The 2014 EFMD Annual Conference in Vienna brought out a more moderated view suggesting that they would make a contribution to teaching and learning, but they would in not way replace the traditional university. Sense at last. If MOOCs are the monster, perhaps they, or at least their underlying business model, are more of the Loch Ness variety. Talked about by many, but very difficult to find.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Closing remarks

Rather than do a traditional closing speech, Barbara Sporn began her closing address by asking the audience the one key question from the conference: could they pronounce “WU” properly?! She then thanked the team members of WU for their dedication and effort in setting up the conference as well as Diana Grote and Eric Cornuel of EFMD. Ms. Sporn went on to outline the difficulty in summarizing such a rich conference, adding that EFMD conferences are like stock taking exercises that give time for reflection on issues in management education. 

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EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Breakout sessions-B1 – Marketing of Business Schools in a Digital World

At the EFMD Annual Conference, Andrew Crisp, Director of CarringtonCrisp and Tracey Horn, Head of Communications and Marketing at Cambridge Judge Business School, gave an excellent session on the various opportunities that digital marketing can offer to the promotion of business schools. Andrew began his talk stating that digital marketing gives school the chance to do more personal marketing. Just one advertisement can have hundreds of variations and be tweaked according to the response. It’s a completely different mind-set from having a single advert in one newspaper for one day. With personalisation also comes the need to differentiate, as well as to say something different from all the other business schools vying for a student’s attention and attendance.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Plenary V – Panel on Technology & Blended Programmes

Richard Straub, introduced the final session of the EFMD Conference 2014, stating then blended learning seemed outdated and the need to discuss what would go beyond this methodology and take us to the next stage.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Plenary IV – MOOCs

At the EFMD Annual Conference 2014, Vivek Goel, Chief Academic Strategist, Coursera, kicked off the fourth Plenary by stating that the traditional university has many years to go and will never be replaced by online learning. He then went on to outline exactly what a MOOC is and how they can supplement teaching and learning.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Plenary III – Financial Models for Educational Institutions

Thomas Estermann began by talking about trends in finance in higher education. According to Mr. Estermann, performance based funding is now widely used but there are different ideas on what exactly the performance should be. The number of Bachelor and Masters Students is very important, as is the number of international students. What happens if the indicators change, especially if more than 50% of funding comes from public funds? Usually the indicators remain stable and there is also a dialogue between the different actors before they are changed.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Breakout sessions- A4 – Roundtable on New Technologies & Accreditation

At the Roundtable Martin Schader the Associate Director, Quality Services, EFMD, and Rebecca Taylor, Dean Open University UK, spoke during the breakout sessions on Roundtable on New Technologies & Accreditation. Discussing how MOOCs are now becoming more prevalent in education as well as how different technologies can be embedded in the learning experience.

 

EFMD Annual Conference 2013: “Preparing Our Schools for Upcoming Challenges” by Soumitra Dutta

In a closing lecture at the EFMD entitled “Preparing Our Schools for Upcoming Challenges,” Soumitra Dutta, the Dean of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University spoke about the challenges facing business schools today at the EFMD Annual 2013 Conference.  Issues of relevance and adherence to stakeholder interests were looked at, in mapping out the future environment for management education.

EFMD Annual Conference 2013: “Reinventing Education” by Howard Lurie

This year at the EFMD Annual Conference, the trend of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCS) were highlighted and built upon by Howard Lurie, the Vice President for External Affairs for edX, a Harvard and MIT online course initiative.  The traditional model for higher education is now changing to reflect the emergence of open source content and learning online.  The advantages and disadvantages of going online were discussed, how traditional university models could work with MOOCs to their benefit, and what the next steps forward are for edX amidst all this.