Alliances for Knowledge: MOOCs for a New Model of University (Negative and Positive Aspects)

A generational clash of enormous scope is emerging within our institutions; the criticisms to the university advanced 15 years ago were "waiting ideas'': waiting for the new Web and for a new generation of students able to effectively put in question the old model of University. University in the globalized and interconnected knowledge society reached a turning point; we are at a crossroads between stagnation and renewal, between atrophy and renaissance. Many universities around the world fail to meet the learning needs; the majority of undergraduate courses churn skills that are not required by the labor market, more and more American students put into question quality, costs and more and more students around the world enroll in online university courses or distance universities. At present, however a new concept of global education is emerging; many universities are tearing down their ivory towers and are internet to make their content available to everyone. MOOCs have many shortcomings that depend on the pedagogical-educational models and on their course assessment systems as well as on the access modes and on the business models universities are developing. Today we have to make a critical appreciation of MOOCs in order to put them into the proper historical and cultural setting; all MOOCs contents should be considered as new encyclopedias democratizing the access to knowledge; without a new supporting framework, without a new organizational and pedagogical framework, we cannot think to replace university as such. The sharing of contents among the various universities worldwide certainly represents a significant step forward towards renewal, however a true change of the universities can happen manly with the establishment of consortia among the various universities of the world cooperating to jointly realized the contents of the Internet-based learning environments. In a networked world, the students can learn from experts of the whole world and can contribute, through a collaborative learning process, to the realization of new knowledge The article will present the successful model of distance university coming from the UNINETTUNO Model, born from consortia of universities of Italian and international traditional public university.