Udacity is throwing in the towel on MOOCs with the company’s founder, Sebastian Thrun, declaring that they don’t work for higher education.
I described in a recent column in Educational Technology how the primary advantage of MOOCs is that they can bring educational opportunities to learners who have no other opportunities. Unfortunately, they fail to deal with individual needs for learning in ways possible with other means. Check out this article to learn more about Thrun’s reservations: What Will Happen to MOOCs Now that Udacity Is Leaving Higher Ed? — Campus Technology.
I retired as a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2016 where I was Associate Professor of French and Instructional Pyschology & Technology. I arrived there in 1992 after my retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel from a 20-year career in the US Air Force. Most of that time was spent on the faculty at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), during what I call my first career. For over forty years I have been creating interactive video applications for supporting language. The lab at the Language Learning Center at USAFA engaged in ground-breaking efforts conducted within a mentored learning setting. The lab’s work involved the development of technologies and instructional design strategies for the use of video in the language acquisition process as well as with architectures that support online learning and facilitate learning about learning.
I have a BA in Political Science from BYU, an MBA from the University of Missouri, and a PhD in Foreign Language Education and Computer Science from The Ohio State University. At the Air Force Academy I was a key member of the team that designed what was then the largest interactive videodisc-based learning center on a college campus. When I retired from BYU I directed the ARCLITE Lab, which was involved in the creation of online learning materials for language learning as well as video and interactive technologies for learning.
