The Massive Open Online Course Movement, xMOOCs, and Faculty Labor

Using critical discourse analysis, the authors examine a broad range of texts to make sense of the rise of the MOOC movement and implications for faculty work. Drawing on Braverman’s labor process theory and critiques of neoliberalism, the authors highlight the role of xMOOCs in particular, focusing on challenges to faculty labor. They organize deductively driven findings into three key areas: 1) context for the rise of MOOCs; 2) xMOOCs and reshaping faculty labor; and 3) opposition arising from the professorate. Within these three categories they explore inductively driven findings generated by their analysis of over 200 texts.