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Based Blended Professional Degree Program Evaluating Access, Quality, and Equity in Online Learning: A Case Study of a MOOC- Based Blended Professional Degree Program Joshua Littenberg-Tobias, Massachussets Insitute of Technology Justin Reich, Massachussets Insitute of Technology Abstract As massive open online courses (MOOCs) shift toward professional degree and certificate programs, can they become a global on-ramp for increasing access to emerging fields for underrepresented groups? This mixed-methods study addresses this question by examining one of the first MOOC-based blended professional degree programs, which admitted students to an accelerated residential master’s program on the basis of performance in MOOCs and a proctored exam. We found that male students and students with master’s degrees were more likely to complete the online program and the blended program had more male students and more students with master’s degrees than students in the existing residential program. Students who enrolled in the blended graduate program earned higher average grades than students in the residential program earned in their in-person courses (3.86 vs 3.75, p<0.01). The findings of this study provide an example of how new online learning models can serve particular niches, but may not address broader equity challenges. Keywords: online learning, professional education, MOOCs, access, admissions 2 Evaluating Access, Quality, and Equity in Online Learning: A Case Study of a MOOC- Based Blended Professional Degree Program 1. Introduction Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become a high-profile feature of the online educational landscape, offering free online courses that attract millions of learners (DeBoer et al., 2014; Perna et al., 2014). At the onset of MOOCs, some scholars lauded MOOCs as one potential solution to the global demand for higher education (Alcorn et al., 2015). MOOC advocates originally described their efforts as a way to expand educational opportunities by offering free, online classes from elite U.S. institutions such as Stanford, MIT, and Harvard at a large scale (Perna et al., 2014). In the past few years, however, major MOOC providers have transitioned from offering freely accessible courses to some type of paywall system that limits all or parts of course to those who pay a fee (Shaw, 2019). Though a few voices continue to promise disruptive change in higher education through online learning (Christensen, 2017), there is a growing consensus that MOOCs will be integrated into existing higher education systems rather than upending the systems entirely (Al-Imarah & Shields, 2018; Reich & Ruipérez-Valiente, 2019). One way MOOC providers have adapted to this changing landscape is by working with higher education institutions to create new professional credentials and graduate degree programs, including both fully online and blended online/in-person programs. These new online and blended programs are targeted at early and mid-career professionals who are seeking job- related skills and credentials. Proponents claim that these programs have the potential to serve a global market of professionals looking for flexible, lower-cost, alternatives to traditional professional degree programs (Caudill, 2017; Joyner, 2018; Zheng et al., 2018). 3 In this study, we examine the experiences of students in one of the first blended MOOC- based degree programs, a professional master's program in supply chain management offered by the Center for Transportation and Logistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).1 Supply chain management is a rapidly growing field of study concerning logistics and operations within increasingly global supply chains (McCrea, 2016). The program consisted of two components. MIT offered a non-degree credential in supply chain management, called a MicroMasters, through MOOCs. To earn a MicroMasters, students needed to pay for and complete five MOOCs and pass a proctored exam. Students who earned the MicroMasters were then eligible to apply for a semester-long accelerated version of a residential master’s degree program on campus at MIT or with a partner institution that agreed to recognize the MicroMasters credential and offer a similar accelerated residential master’s program. Students in the accelerated master’s degree did not have to submit standardized test scores or undergraduate grades as was required for admission to the year-long residential master’s degree in supply chain management. In effect, the MicroMasters represented an “inverted admissions” track, where admission into the accelerated residential master’s degree program was contingent on performance in the open admissions MicroMasters program. Through studying this program, we explore a question that has recently come to prominence in the online higher education literature: to what extent do new online learning models, like MOOC-based degree or credential programs, broaden access to new, underserved, populations (Goodman et al., 2016) or how might they exacerbate inequality by increasing the opportunities of those who are most capable of taking advantage of new technologies(Hansen & Reich, 2015)? 4 We explore these questions through the lenses of access, equity, and quality. Higher education researchers describe access as having an equal opportunity to participate in higher education (Clancy & Goastellec, 2007). MOOCs are often described as promoting access to higher education by providing entry points into higher education with lower stakes and costs than traditional higher education offering (Koller et al., 2013; Perna et al., 2014). However, in practice, access to equal opportunities does not ensure equal outcomes because of structural inequalities that privilege the already advantaged (Peurach et al., 2019; Roemer & Trannoy, 2015). An equity perspective argues that access to equal opportunities is not sufficient and that compensatory measures are needed in order to ensure that all groups can have equal outcomes (Clancy & Goastellec, 2007; Lim et al., 2018). Finally, quality in a professional setting is the extent to which the learning experiences develop the knowledge and skills to be successful within a professional field. As Jones (2013) observes, quality professional learning allows student to gain a “well-developed, comprehensive and readily recalled domain knowledge, the capacity to scrutinise both the well-articulated and tacitly held basis for their decision making and action and an attitude of systematic enquiry and knowledge building to improve their theory of practice.” (p.58). For working professionals, flexibility is a key component of quality learning experiences. Professionals working full-time jobs did need learning opportunities that can effectively be completed outside the traditional work day (Donavant, 2009). Although MOOCs have the potential to provide asynchronous quality professional learning experience due to their flexibility some researchers have raised concerns about the low- instructional quality of some MOOCs. Many MOOCs provide few opportunities for working on authentic, ill-structured problems or provide opportunities for learners to apply their knowledge to solve problems (Margaryan, Bianco, & Littlejohn, 2015). From an equity perspective, it is a 5 problem if MOOC-based degree programs increase access but have low instructional quality because it means the students who most need high-quality instruction, those without prior educational advantages, would be least likely to receive it. The blended MOOC-based degree in supply chain management is a compelling case study to examine these issues because the field suffers from a lack of gender, educational, and racial diversity in supply chain management positions (Burgess et al., 2017; Nix & Stiffler, 2016) and increasing access to supply chain management education was part of the original goals of the program (Mingle, 2018). For these programs to advance equity, they must not only increase access to instructional materials but they should provide quality professional learning experiences and compensatory supports that enable those from under-represented groups to advance in their professional field. As one of the first examples of MOOC-based blended professional degree programs, it allows us to examine the emergence of a new online learning innovation, professional MOOC-based degree and credential programs, and explore how MOOC-based programs conduct admissions, prepares learners, and ultimately credential students. Additionally, the 2. Background 2.1 MOOCs and the debate over quality, access, and equity in online higher education The field of online higher education has grown rapidly in the last decade. In 2013, 27% of undergraduate, degree-seeking students in the U.S. were enrolled in one course online and 11% were enrolled in fully online programs (Deming et al., 2015). By 2017, only four years later, those numbers had increased to 33% taking at least one course online and 18% enrolled in fully online programs (Lederman, 2018). Demand for higher education, particularly in the Global South, has led to a massive rise in online higher education (Alcorn et al., 2015). 6 For many years, universities outsourced creating new online programs to for-profit Online Program Managers (OPMs) who are put in charge of marketing, online infrastructure, instructional design and even instruction and assessment (Mattes, 2017). OPMs usually invest the capital to create the courses upfront in exchange for an ongoing share of tuition revenue (McKenzie, 2018). OPMs are now a multi-billion dollar
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