The mooc phenomenon and universality of culture: the new frontiers of higher education

Laburpena

The main objective of this work is to explain the rapid spread of the phenomenon of MOOC courses –and their real relevance and position in higher education– in the context of the dynamic universality of cultures, communication and knowledge. Using a critical theory and ex post facto
methodology, MOOC courses are analyzed as a part of the integration of the academic world in the complex processes of globalization born from the ICT revolution, but it therefore follows that they do not constitute the final frontier of higher education. The article determines that the MOOC
courses contribute to some extent to [1] the universality of culture, and to the phenomenon of globalization and what it represents today; [2] The universality of communication within the union of mass media; [3] the universality of knowledge, with the use of global pedagogical methods and methodologies as a whole; and, ultimately, [4] the universality of higher education itself, since these courses are involved in the processes of homogenization of the models of university studies as well as the adaptation to the characteristics of a networked society. However, they do not present a phenomenon of such magnitude as to radically transform education at this level. They cannot even offer si gnificant pedagogical and didactic innovations in relation to what has already been carried out, earlier and in parallel, in other e-learning processes. These courses represent only one of the answers –by no means the only one– to new social needs, in a context of lifelong education for all, and what explains its growth.