The Changing Face of Education and the Dilemma of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions: Implications for Development

On-going studies indicates that the changing face of education via online instruction has drastically turned the tables on the essence of the flipped classroom where usually class work goes home and home work comes to class, a scenario referred to as ‘education tsunami’. Aside the psychological and ethical problems arising from this scenario, preliminary studies carried out among Nigerian tertiary institutions revealed that most students tend to feel their fingers burnt out when they fail to get expected results from the exercise (enrolling in a Massive Open Online Course ‘MOOC’ programme). While employing the traditional methods of rational critical analysis in philosophy to interrogate, and analyze the major contending arguments on the place and relevance of MOOCs in Nigeria’s 21st century educational development, preliminary investigations show an increasing number of students dropping out of MOOCs programmes as a result of problems ranging from distancing phobia and unnecessary anxiety. The flipped classroom model is however recommended as a method which institutions and educators need to embrace since it offers a win-win situation for both students and facilitators