Not all students arrive on the first day of classes with the same skills sets, learning habits, comfort levels, maturity, etc. So channelling them all into a single type of learning environment, be it big group lectures, on-line lectures, on-line group activities, automated PSets, TEAL or whatever is sub-optimizing the both the resources of MIT and the potential for students to learn, be they undergrads or grad students, in Cambridge or Cameroon. Indeed, saying that "all students benefit from the social element of live course instruction and classmate interaction" (as seems to be a bit of a theme on the postings so far) is not correct; some do, but some really don't like, want or need the specific interaction on offer. So need nurture and forced structure, some don't.

But how does MIT figure out what genuinely is optimal, given the problem to solve has as many variables as it does students?

A start might be to change the question from whether MIT should be more 'MOOC' and less live in some abstract sense, and instead focus on evaluating the package of learning solutions that can work for various types of students and then consider how MIT resources should be aligned to best support optimal leaning for its mix of students.

Is MIT incorporating enough thinking in this exercise into how people learn and how different types of people learn best, or is it focusing too much on developing new learning concepts disconnected from how they fit learning needs?

Should MIT consider developing the tools and capabilities that would allow it to literally evaluate each potential student's learning optimisation profile, i.e., what mix of live, remote, passive, active, interactive, hands-on, conceptual input works best for each student (truly tailored learning programmes)? Could some form of assessment be done to 'channel' students down different learning pathways? This could be a combination of self-assessment, use of tools developed by learning professionals, but equally neuroscience professionals should increasingly be able to support with means of assessing how students respond to different sources of learning by observing brain processes directly. Could assessments be done in some automated fashion that is part of the application process, or during induction periods?

Can there be tracking systems that 'learn how we learn' at an individual level, thus allowing MIT to refine ideal packages of learning solutions as a student progresses, providing both guidance to students and predictive analyses that help MIT figure out what it needs to have available.

Obviously all of this needs to be bounded by cost and development constraints, and also provide enough choice to students to not leave them feeling 'programmed' by MIT.

I am concerned that the debate may turn into MOOC or no MOOC, high-touch or no-touch, rather than recognising the real win for MIT for the future is not being cheaper, techi-er, cooler or whatever; real winning is having more students who attain higher standards of both academic and life achievement, thus bringing higher reputation to MIT (and so supporting the interest of donors, corporate sponsors and of course academic and research talent) and do so because they are learning in ways that are genuinely suitable for them---and so are also relatively secure and happy in a nonetheless challenging. environment.

Education is not my area of expertise, but in thinking back on my own MIT experience, watching my son (who is currently an undergraduate at MIT and who is also doing paid support for an edX 600 course) and considering the experience of my husband, who is on the board of the Open University in the UK (which I believe is the world's largest and oldest MOOC) and who is also a Fellow of a Cambridge college, I am concerned that the whole debate about higher education is turning into a discussion of how the pipes are laid rather than what goes through them--the students.

Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance in your work.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Laurel Powers-Freeling (SM '85)
Goldingtons
Church Lane
Sarratt, Hertfordshire WD3 6HE
United Kingdom
laurel@powers-freeling.com