Communications of the ACM

from a few students to hundreds of thousands with virtually no incremental costs. In this new world of learning technologies there are schools that are content producers and those that are content consumers. (Of course, the producers also consume content as well.) The content producer in general bears the full cost of developing technology-enhanced teaching and learning materials and systems.

The technology offers different op-
tions for creating content at different
price points. An instructor might make
10–20 videos that replace lectures
and post them to a learning manage-
ment system. This instructor will also
“curate” material from the Internet,
adding You Tube videos and TED talks
for example to her lectures. Some fac-
ulty will create the lectures using a PC
with a touchscreen and pen, a Web
cam, and video capture and editing
software. Other faculty less comfort-
able with the technology will want to
have a script and record the video in
a studio; it takes considerable time to
create a script and to undertake post-
production of the video. The Smith
School of Business, which has a num-
ber of blended courses, a MOOC and a
completely online MBA program (with
active learning. Active learning means
that students are heavily involved in
their own education as opposed to
passively sitting through a lecture.
Discussing a case study, working on a
simulation, playing a game, breaking a
class into teams to work on a problem
are all examples of active learning.

Learning technology can be divided into synchronous and asynchronous components. Asynchronous refers to course materials and exercises that students access at a time and place of their own choosing while synchronous interaction means that some number of students and an instructor are interacting at the same time, usually through video conferencing system of some kind. Frequently, students access asynchronous material like readings, videos, simulations, and games through a learning management system like Blackboard or Canvas.

Figure 1 depicts several different types of courses; online, blended and MOOCs all make use of teaching and learning technologies. The traditional course before the availability of the technology described here featured a physical classroom with an instructor and students. Typically, the instructor lectured and encouraged discussion depending on the size of the class. Course materials came in the form of textbooks and reading packets in hard copy. The first online courses were mostly asynchronous with interaction between the instructor and students occurring through email and discussion boards. With the advent of reliable video conferencing software and fast Internet connections, it is possible to have synchronous online classes where the instructor and students interact in real time on a computer or mobile device. A blended course features physical interaction between the instructor and students with course materials, including lectures, available asynchronously for the student to access at her convenience. A blended course stress-es active learning when the instructor relegates all lectures to videos and uses the physical class meeting for interaction among and with students, for example, discussing current issues, case studies, student presentations on a course topic and similar activities.

A massive open online course is a
different animal altogether; virtually
all of the course occurs asynchronously
without direct interaction with an in-
structor. MOOCs utilize videos viewed
by students at their convenience. The
major MOOC platforms provide the
ability for students to submit home-
work some of which is graded automat-
ically and some by peers. But MOOCs
really are massive, with thousands of
“learners” taking the courses, mostly
for fun or for an inexpensive certifi-
cate for passing the course. Recently
Coursera, the largest MOOC provider,
has offered specializations by combin-
ing four courses or more in a particular
area. A small number of colleges are
using MOOCs to offer courses for cred-
it including Georgia Tech with an MS
in computer science for under $7,000
and the University of Illinois with an
MBA for about $20,000. Students who
want to take the MOOC-based degree
programs have to apply to the universi-
ties and be accepted so that the schools
can control the input and size of these
specialized programs.