Can MOOC Fires Bring Light to Shadow Education

Abstract

The New York Times has named 2012 as “The Year of the MOOC.” With more than 1.3 million users, the Chronicle of Higher Education writers have called MOOCs the “Campus Tsunami”, declaring that “College May Never Be the Same.” How did we get here?  What have been the drivers that led us to this point in our educational history?  Scholars identify at least four drivers that have converged to make the timing ripe for MOOCs. This paper reviews the current literature on the new phenomenon of MOOCs, discusses its relationship on the international scene where shadow tutoring poses more problems than benefits, and recommends future research on areas in which clear gaps exist in the body of the literature.