Evolution, Education and Massive Open Online Courses: A Multiverse Proposal

The 21st century has given rise to an economic and social system based on learning and, therefore, on the capacity to create and connect new and existing knowledge through people, rather than on the abundance of content. This change, compared to the industrial model, calls for a serious analysis of the need for flexible, fluid and transversal training in subjects or, rather, in competencies, from different fields. Learning systems have begun to address this challenge with massive open online courses. Nonetheless, MOOCs often replicate classical models of learning. They follow traditional learning paths based on the concept of “cycles”, with analysis of topics within a single subject area. We need to develop learning objects that can be (re)articulated and developed according to the binary logic of decomposition-aggregation, fragmentation-recomposition. In this way, we can propose a sort of multi-skilled knowledge and skills set that is agile and capable of selecting and communicating on different levels, able to deal convincingly with diverse subject areas, and that can be constantly updated. This is the only way for lifelong learning to take place, within a constant process of regeneration and multiplication, rather than through cycles. Digital learning can play a decisive role in responding to this challenge and, in the long term, will be indispensible. It is a model that follows and, in some way, supports or partially replaces the traditional University offering. But, more than that, digital learning provides new “granular” access to knowledge in response to the contingent needs of those people who “have to” access that knowledge.