Are Micro Community Courses (MiCCs) the future of online education?

What if new technologies could allow us to understand the varied backgrounds, goals, and learning styles of our students—and provide educational material customized to their unique needs? What if we could deliver education to students via on-demand platforms that allowed them to study whenever, wherever, and whatever they desired, instead of requir... See more

Large class live instruction combined with peer group collaboration can lower the price of delivery by an order of magnitude, but is much more engaging than MOOC-style courses.

To summarize: On many MOOC platforms, the dominant learning modality is passive content consumption; there’s no interaction or real community; and there’s no time constraint. All this amounts to a tiny percentage of learners who actually follow through.

Coursera, Udacity and edX sprang up nearly a decade ago as high-profile university experiments known as MOOCs, for massive open online courses. They were portrayed as tech-fueled insurgents destined to disrupt the antiquated ways of traditional higher education. But few people completed courses, grappling with the same challenges now facing student... See more

Education 3.0 created companies that were designed to replicate the social experience of college, a book club, or group class online. Part of the fun of learning a new skill is the social aspect, which is lost on 99% of edtech startups who think too transactionally and — dare I say — too efficiently.