Clayton Christensen, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and Michelle Weise, a research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, argue that MOOCs have jump-started important conversations about higher education. They state that “free access to content from prestigious institutions revealed that content didn’t need to be proprietary. Without having to waste time re-creating the same lectures and class materials, particularly for lower-division courses, many professors saw the opportunity to be even more connected and hands-on in order to make existing content come alive for students. Despite the intense trepidation that technology would somehow replace teachers, it became clear that MOOCs didn’t preempt interaction; instead, they forced more contact and accountability on both the student and the teacher.” They also argue that MOOCs have managed to generate price competition, and that universities will have to compete with MOOC providers who offer low-cost, direct paths to employment that do not necessarily end in degrees or certificates.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/moocs-disruption-only-beginning/story.html