Faculty may not teach Massive Open Online Courses, according to a memorandum released by Provost Scott Bass May 8.
MOOCs are defined as public, free courses that do not offer school credit. Students who participate in MOOCs also do not have to be admitted to the specific university offering the classes.
MOOCs are currently a topic of debate among higher education institutes. Some universities have decided to offer MOOCs, while others have decided against participation, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Bass sent the memo to AU faculty and staff after the Faculty Senate requested Bass clarify the moratorium on MOOCs that went into effect on Jan. 9.
The Faculty Senate requested a clarification on the moratorium because the moratorium sounded absolute, Professor John Nolan, the chairman of the Faculty Senate's Committee of the Academic Budget and Benefits, said in an email to The Eagle. However, the moratorium is not absolute, he said.
"There is a wide gray area between a single talk and a full course given for credit, and it is not clear where that line is drawn," Nolan wrote in the email.
Bass lists being a tuition-dependent school as a reason for the moratorium against MOOCs. Other universities, such as Stanford University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offer MOOCs, but they may have different financial models, Bass wrote in the memo.
"As an institution for which tuition is a financial necessity, our focus has been to find ways to offer our quality programs to a wider audience based on a traditional tuition model," Bass wrote in the memo.
One of the obvious concerns about MOOCs is the lack of revenue, said Robert McGuire, the editor of MOOC News and Reviews. MOOCs do not necessarily pay off in the short run because the University has to pay to run the MOOC, which does not bring in revenue, he said.
However, MOOCs also raise the question of why should students pay for classes at AU, when they can get it for free or cheaper through MOOCs, he said.
According to guidelines proposed by the Faculty Senate, non-MOOC online learning and teaching, which only require notifying a chair or program director, may be through:
• iTunes
• posting lectures online
• blogs
• presentations
These activities may not be full courses, offer credit or a certificate of completion or use the AU logo, according to the guidelines.
"[The guidelines in the memo from the Provost] was the beginning of the work on establishing potential guidelines for MOOCs - to first clarify what is current permissible online activity," Faculty Senate Chair Candice Nelson said in an email to The Eagle.
The Faculty Senate will put together an ad hoc committee to discuss MOOCs next fall, Nelson said in an email.
MOOCs raise questions about:
• the costs and benefits of MOOCs
• the implications of offering a class as an MOOC and at AU
• the approval process for professors wishing to teach MOOCs
These issues will be discussed among the administration, faculty and legal counsel, according to the memo from the Provost.
"The University needs to get these questions answered quickly," McGuire said.
The marketplace is moving toward accepting MOOCs, he said.
AU also needs to look at these questions seriously because they matter to students and MOOCs benefit students, McGuire said.
"For students, they are fabulous because they are free," he said.
Professors also enjoy teaching MOOCs, McGuire said. MOOCs are a teaching tool, but they also allow the professors to use class time differently when lectures are online.
McGuire commends the University for taking to time to slow down and examine MOOCs. However, it cannot last forever, he said.
"This is such a fast-moving field," McGuire said.
hmongilio@theeagleonline.com
