<p>bookreader,
Your points are well taken. Higher education is not one size fits all. Some content that is straightforward, such as a class in medical terminology may be best dealt with via online instruction or a test. Other classes, such as an ethics class, would be best taught in the live classroom with an engaged student population. Each situation depends on the content, the student population, and the instructor, so you are correct that a live class would be inhibited by an instructor with language issues. </p>
<p>Most public institutions are finding themselves more reliant on tuition revenue as state funding drops. This can lead to an aggressive move by administrators to expand the student population through more and more online classes taught by adjuncts who don’t have the experience to guide online instruction. I think it will be interesting to see if MOOCs taught by long term faculty who are considered experts in their field will lead to a new online model with improved content delivery and support from teaching assistants as compared to the “any warm body” model that is widely used now to staff classes and ensure maximum enrollment.</p>