Are MOOCs impacting on-campus students? Jul. 2014 | Page 45

The impact on students is less clear, and although there was some feedback via the
discussions over evaluations, there was little first-hand commentary to come to any
significant conclusion.
In terms of change for academics, academics have been able to experiment with
new ways of teaching and have improved their own teaching scores with students.
They have changed their approaches, as far as the data can show.
It would be true to say, that as far as we can tell, these Academics have
enthusiastically embraced the concept of change for their teaching and for
developing new communities of learning. However, there may be some bias to this,
as although they have shown that they are enthusiastic, it could be that they are
already enthusiastic which is why they were using the platform in this way in the first
place.

7. CONCLUSIONS
The initial hypothesis of this investigation was that MOOCs would have an impact
on the educational experience for on campus students. This was a topic of interest
because at the time of conducting the analysis, there was much hype that MOOCs
would mean the end of Universities (Brooks, 2012; Hyman, 2012; Vardi, 2012). This
study has shown some indications that blended learning with MOOCs are effective
and that they have an impact on the educational experience on campus.
It clearly is of benefit to foster this environment where academic conversations are
steering themselves to towards online learning. Institutions have already made
huge investments into the development of MOOCs (MOOCS @ Edinburgh Group,
2013) and so it makes sense to apply these high quality resources to enhance the
student experience of on campus students.
In conclusion, the following could be areas for consideration for professional
practice when using MOOCs for blended learning

MSc Digital Education

University of Edinburgh, 2014

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