What traditional liberal arts education has to offer ‘MOOCs’: Information competency, interdisciplinary classrooms and active learning

MOOCs’ are making a big splash in higher education.  In some ways they disrupt traditional institutional structures, credit hours, and academic credentials.  In other ways, they retain traditional formats such as ‘sage on the stage,’ teaching styles, passive learning and notions of ‘the course.’  Rather than think about how ‘MOOCs’ will influence liberal arts education, perhaps it is time to flip the question.  What does traditional liberal arts education have to offer ‘MOOCs’?  The answer remains the enduring value of education that produces critical thinkers, life-long learners and economically and politically contributing members of society.  But in order to accomplish that feat, liberal arts education may have to take a lesson from MOOCs on how to generate excitement for the deployment of technology in service of inter-institutional and even international classrooms, information competency and problem-solving based courses.