What can MOOC’s do for YOUR future?
UCF College of Sciences presents
MOOC Mania – “Universities in an Era of Economic and Technological Change”
(Massive Open Online Courses)
Distinguished Speaker
Dr. Jack M. Wilson
President Emeritus & Distinguished Professor of the University of Massachusetts
Thursday, 1/30/2014
4:30pm-5:30pm
Classroom Building 2, Room 106
Dr. Wilson will discuss MOOC mania (Massive Open Online Courses), the large amount of attention that has been given to the MOOC developed by Harvard, MIT, Stanford and other elite universities. Will they change the world and make the rest of higher education obsolete?
Never has more been expected of universities. We are expected to change the world and our communities and create an exciting and successful future for our students. At the same time, we are expected to demonstrate greater accountability and to find ways to meet the raised expectations with much less resource. At one time MOOCs were expected to be the savior of higher education while making education universally available and free. Over time, the flaws in that theory became clear and the pendulum swung to another extreme -with university after university rejecting deployment of MOOCs out of both rational and irrational fears. At the same time, the relentless growth of online education has continued without interruption by great recessions or political upheavals- with over seven million students now participating in online education from very reputable (and somewhat less so) institutions,. Many think that higher education is now in the process of being disrupted by technology in the manner that Clayton Christenson has shown to have occurred in so many other sectors of our economy. He may be right, but may not understand why or how.
About Dr. Jack M. Wilson
Dr. Wilson was the 25th President of the University of Massachusetts from 2003-2011. Prior to that he had been serving as the Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University of Massachusetts System and is the founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UMassOnline, the University of Massachusetts Virtual University. As Vice President he was responsible for the coordination of the academic programs in research and teaching throughout the five campus system. As CEO of UMassOnline he worked with the five physical campuses, Amherst, Lowell, Boston, Worcester, and Dartmouth to provide online access to the programs of the University of Massachusetts.
Dr. Wilson was also the J Erik Jonsson Distinguished Professor of Physics, Engineering, Information Technology and Management, as well as Dean and Interim Provost at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1990-2001. As a Physics professor at RPI, he introduced the studio mode of teaching which now is implemented at universities throughout the nation.
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