MOOCs have been through many transformations since their inception in 2008. I agree with Tom Friedman that MOOCs are here to stay. Their primary function is to be an open-source platform, where learning is scaled to accommodate many students all over the world. Which also means that as designers and educators, we may have to modify design processes we have been using when developing face to face courses, because of the limitations of the platform. But the developmental models for learning are still the same.

What has been lacking, in my opinion, is other methods to assess if students are learning from the course. I would suggest possibly having a student fill out a survey before taking the class to get an understanding as to the “why” they are interested in the first place. Then follow that student throughout the course. Developing a MOOC course takes time and money, but if educators want answers, this might provide more insight. Having courses on the edX platform is expensive, so when higher institutions add these additional avenues of learning, the stakeholders want to see a return on their investment. To assume the course is not good, because there is a dropout rate in the first two weeks of more than 50%, does not mean the course is terrible. It just might mean they are not targeting the right student.

The overall premise of the MOOC is to try it out and see if this is what you would like to do. What educators and instructional designers should do is to focus on providing the best asynchronous course that will accommodate the limitations of the platform that it runs on.