MOOC Production within the University: Aims, Achievements, Barriers

The concept paper aims at defining the objectives associated by the administrators of higher educational institutions (HEIs) with massive open online course (MOOC) production and at revealing the progress achieved and the barriers faced. Ever increasing tempo of digitization and budget savings at educational institutions make rationality of this activity and elaboration of ideas for increasing it a hot topic for discussion – both for those HEIs that have already launched such projects and for those who, being able to start a project taking into account international and Russian experience, consider this perspective in the future. The paper covers the objectives that American and European HEIs, where the first MOOCs appeared, associate with MOOC production projects. It also presents the first attempt to bring the position of Russian university administrators into this context. English and Russian literature reviewed here reflects the experience of MOOC producers trying to accomplish these objectives. These research and non-research papers show that the objectives set have not been fully met yet, as they require additional mechanisms and tools which are as well limited. This leads to the suggestion that MOOC has not proved to be a stand-alone solution for the universities which produce them, but seems promising if introduced into the organization development strategy. An evident limitation of this paper is using non-research papers to describe the current situation in MOOC industry in Russia, since academic publications on the topic are scarce. Further research might clarify and extinguish the ideas presented in the paper. The conclusion contains some recommendations on measuring and increasing the effectiveness of MOOC production projects in accomplishing the HEIs’ objectives.