Rock Stars!

            Ironically, the MOOC phenomenon has given rise to the phrase “rock star professors”, or “superprofessors”.  No offense to any college professor is intended, but it made me laugh.  Rees (2013) has described superprofessors as the prominently known professors who lecture in some of the most popular MOOCs currently available through companies such as Coursera and EdX.  The curriculum materials created by these rock stars are viewed in some cases by tens of thousands of students in a single academic term.  Furthermore, due to recent developments, in some situations the curriculum materials created by these superprofessors are spreading beyond the boundaries of a single online platform, to the traditional brick and mortar classrooms of various institutions nationwide.  These superstar professors have the opportunity to devise curriculum materials that could potentially reach farther than ever previously thought possible.

            A potential wide scale implementation and acceptance of MOOCs within the higher education industry could potentially force the redefining of the faculty role as we currently know it.  In a traditional course setting, professors invest a significant amount time during each academic term creating curriculum resources and interacting with students.  In this traditional format, college professors dedicate a significant portion of their time engaging with their students, and providing customized instruction and performance feedback.  In contrast, the MOOC phenomenon has given rise to an alternative definition of the role of the college professor.  The professors that utilize the MOOC format invest a great deal more time and resources than their traditional counterparts in the creation of the course structure and curriculum materials. Essentially, MOOC professors must develop all of the needed course resources at the onset of the course.   However, once the course starts, their role as the course instructor is much more minimal comparatively.  Since MOOC students have limited interactions with their professors, and their work is usually graded by a computer, MOOC instructors do not share the same set of responsibilities as their traditional counterparts, and infrequently interact with students. 

            When you ponder the further implementation of MOOCS on a wide scale manner, the use of MOOCs could potentially change the role of professors beyond the digital walls of the MOOC classroom, spilling over into the traditional brick and mortar classroom.  At San Jose State University (SJSU), faculty members are facing pressure to integrate MOOC courses into their existing curriculum (Kolowich, 2013).  A group of professors from the philosophy department at SJSU have united in an effort to stop the integration of these MOOC resources within their university, claiming that they are inferior to the traditional method of instruction, stating that this is nothing more than an effort to replace qualified faculty with cheap online instruction.  Rees (2013) provides a similar view, stating that the MOOC phenomenon has the potential to drastically cut labor cost. It is conceivable that as traditional institutions of higher education contemplate utilizing MOOC resources in lieu of their traditional class materials, the onus of creating curriculum materials could be removed from the course professor, essentially entering institutions of higher education into the leasing business in terms of curriculum materials.  Many within the field are worries that MOOC expansion could pose a serious threat to the traditional role of the college professor to essentially a class moderator.

           

Resources

Rees, J. (2013, July 25). The MOOC Racket. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/07/moocs_could_be_disastrous_for_students_and_professors.html

Kolowich, S. (2013). Why professors at San Jose State won’t use a Harvard professor’s MOOC. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Professors-at-San-Jose/138941/