What impact for open and massive online courses (CLOM / MOOC)?

What are MOOCs? What is their impact on learning and how are they revolutionizing higher education? These are some of the questions to which a new REFAD guide offers possible answers which will also be of interest to the primary and secondary environment in their essence.

Prepared for the Francophone Distance Learning Network of Canada (REFAD) by Mr. Robert Grégoire, this document Traces the history of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), from Canada to their optimization in the United States and subsequent adoption, in Europe and around the world. The many sources consulted, scientific and governmental as well as expert and media, help to clarify the issues facing Canadian educational institutions, particularly in terms of higher and professional education.

The guide is divided into three parts. In the first, we present a history of the three stages of development of MOOCs, first in their connectivist form in Canada, then through their exponential explosion in the United States, and finally in their rapid adoption by educational and government authorities, elsewhere in the world. This assessment of a striking phenomenon in education is mainly articulated through a few meta-analyzes which make it possible to paint a comprehensive picture of the situation and to determine that MOOCs, far from being a passing fad, are a disruptive phenomenon which has the potential to transform traditional education, particularly in its established institutions.

In the second part of the guide, we examine MOOCs through their four main players: educational institutions, learners, platform consortia and private enterprise. This approach allows us to better understand the complex relationships that govern this ecosystem and to discern current trends and future challenges. We approach these questions in particular through the lens of the MOOC business model and education, which is somewhat of a poor relation in this equation too often governed by the imperatives of profitability.

The third section turns to French-speaking Canada to examine, through a survey and interviews, the reception given to MOOCs and how they are integrated into the strategic planning of our educational institutions. This fragmentary examination of the French Canadian situation reveals a general awareness, unequal adoption and above all a lack of consultation which presents a significant risk at a time when the Internet offers flexible and tailor-made training to literally the greatest international authorities in their field. , and this at costs defying the competition.