2014: The Year the Media Stopped Caring About MOOCs?

Perhaps we succeeded in preventing the MOOCopalypse, despite the claims that “Computer Science MOOCS march forward!”  Since the MOOC phenomenon was mostly fed by the media, the decline of interest from the media may be a good sign.

The news media’s appetite for MOOC stories has been insatiable. So when the University of Pennsylvania sent an email inviting several hundred education reporters to a seminar on massive open online courses, it anticipated a healthy turnout.

But as the catering deadline approached at the National Press Club, in Washington, organizers realized that they had barely enough registered attendees to justify a platter of finger food.

“We didn’t have a set thing in mind as to how many would attend, but what we were thinking was 15 to 20 from, let’s call them, ‘established’ media outlets,” said Ron Ozio, director of media relations at Penn. “And we got four.”

The university canceled the event.

via 2014: The Year the Media Stopped Caring About MOOCs? – Wired Campus – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher Education.