Are MOOCs instrumental to open up education?

This is the leading question of the book chapter “Opening Up Education and the OpenupEd initiative” (download: pdf - doc - odt ) in a recently published book “MOOCs and Open Education Around the World”, edited by Curtis J. Bonk, Mimi M. Lee, Thomas C. Reeves, Thomas H. Reynolds.

The pan-European OpenupEd MOOCs initiative combines the ‘classical’ notion of openness attached to open universities with the digital openness now possible through Open Educational Resources. The chapter’s leading question is whether MOOCs in general are instrumental to open up education. To that end, all barriers to learning should be taken away, and learners should receive incentives towards success. As such, eleven barriers and three incentives are examined in this chapter. MOOC providers might consider to support the mission of opening up education and may find valuable ingredients in the chapter for a way forward.