Deke Kassabian, a senior technology director at University of Pennsylvania, researched the motivations that universities have for investing time and money to develop MOOCs. Through interviews with key faculty and administrators at Columbia, Duke, and Harvard, he found that institutional motivations did not fully align with the public narrative about MOOCs: “the studied universities are interested in improved and expanded access to education, but they are just as interested in teaching innovations and potential benefits to on-campus education.” Another key finding was that the goals of university faculty and administration often differ with faculty emphasizing improved access and outreach while administrators emphasize improvement for residential education, the ability to motivate campus discussions on teaching and learning, and possible benefits to the university’s reputation.
http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/value-moocs-early-adopter-universities