MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES IN EDUCATION – THE VICTORY OR FALL OF THE IVORY TOWER

This article could be considered as a detailed analysis of massive open online courses (MOOCs), a new phenomenon, which has become the topic of global discussions about the future perspective of education. According to The New York Times, 2012 was MOOCs year and the year 2014 can be considered as the year during which MOOCs have changed the world. However, research studies that do exist show that the success rate of online education, in general, is poor. Most providers acknowledge that about 90 percent of people who register for MOOCs fail to complete them. To tell the truth, the subject of massive open online courses is well known abroad. On the other hand, in the Slovak setting, MOOCs are not so common. There are not many critical academic materials which would evaluate all aspects of MOOCs either. Even so MOOCs intervene into university education and unleashed the debate on its future development. The biggest fear that prevails across society and some members of the academic community is concerned about the possibility of full replacement of traditional institutional teaching by online learning. However, in our opinion, it will expand, complement the traditional way of teaching plus fulfil the educational needs of students who are born as digital natives. Slovak universities should hold a key role in the MOOCs, because they can carry out the research in order to find out the true potential of this educational system. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive insight to this subject and outline possible future trends of this new type of online learning.