Do you remember the contagious 1989 hit song from Janet Jackson, “What Have You Done for Me Lately”? The catchy tagline is a resounding theme for today’s tuition-paying students when it comes to their institutions’ investments in MOOCs.

    1. Herding Cats

Two vital words in the MOOC acronym are “massive and open.”  When we say massive, think enrollments of up to 10,000 students. Trying to facilitate true collaboration and knowledge sharing in a course with 10,000 is pretty much equivalent to herding cats (and being a cat owner myself, I can attest that it’s impossible to herd just two of them).

On the surface, it may appear that the Twitter generation can’t live without technology. But when it comes to learning (and real-time communication beyond 140 characters), they still value prefer face-to-face interaction and collaboration with their peers, according to College Unbound author, Jeff Selingo.

      1. 10,000:1 Student Teacher Ratio

No matter how great the technology platform or course content is, the instructor/student interaction is an essential component in the learning process. No truer words could be spoken on this subject than those of Echo360 CEO, Fred Singer, recently shared at an Ed Tech Investment panel: “No matter how good the content is, teachers are crucial for success.”

How on earth can a MOOC instructor possibly get to know (much less communicate effectively with) students with a 10,000:1 student/instructor ratio? Unless they have superhero mind powers and the magical ability to be in a thousand places at once the answer is, they can’t.

      1. I Get What I Pay For

Yep, they are free.  And in exchange for attending a free course, rarely if ever speaking to the instructor, and depending on 9,999 of your closest friends to guide your education, what do you get?  Nothing.

So goes the age-old saying, “You get what you pay for.”

The majority of MOOCs don’t even offer credits towards degree requirements. Earning a degree to prepare them for a global workforce is why most on-campus students chose to pursue higher education in the first place. Based on the skyrocketing amount of student debt they are accruing, they expect a hefty return on their investment.

      1. My School is Investing Millions in MOOCs – What About Other Technologies that Would Actually Help Me?

Back to Janet Jackson. While their institutions are spending big money on MOOCs, tuition-paying students are asking “What Have You Done for Me Lately” when it comes to budgeting for technologies that would actually help them NOW.

There are 150 million degree seeking students around the world paying an eye-popping $1.5 trillion in tuition. These same students are questioning why they are paying top dollar for access to some of the world’s most prominent instructors and content that is being offered to thousands for FREE through MOOCs.

Instead of seeing their schools invest in MOOCs to teach non-paying learners around the world, enrolled students are begging for on-campus active learning technologies to improve their learning experiences and prepare them for life after college.

More than 600 schools around the globe are currently using active learning solutions to serve their most important customer: the tuition-paying student.

They are using these solutions to teach students critical thinking skills and facilitate the all-important art of collaboration by flipping the classroom. They are maximizing the value of face-to-face class time and inspiring social learning by engaging their students. They are giving the mobile student what they’re asking for by providing education that can be accessed anywhere, anytime. They are breaking down boundaries to distance learning by providing remote students the same interactive environment as their peers sitting in the front row.

Don’t let the critical needs of the on-campus student get lost in the hype of MOOC mania. Discover how active learning can help (and feel free to channel your best Janet Jackson dance moves)!