Abstract
Speight takes a critical look at the mainstreaming of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) between 2008 and 2015, focusing upon their impact on the UK higher education landscape. The chapter has three themes: the political economy of MOOCs, their pedagogy, and their relationship to lifelong learning and adult education. Speight argues that early hopes for MOOCs to widen access to adult and higher education are replaced by the positioning of MOOCs as routes into fee-paying, post-experience, and certificated learning. Currently available evidence suggests that it is postgraduate learners who possess the motivation and skills to benefit most from MOOCs. There are views, however, that MOOCs support teaching enhancement and innovation more generally as universities enable greater use of digital learning.
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Speight, S. (2018). The Mainstreaming of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In: Milana, M., Webb, S., Holford, J., Waller, R., Jarvis, P. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook on Adult and Lifelong Education and Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55783-4_48
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