MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) do more good than harm.

To start out, I would just like to say... I'm screwed! But I'll try anyway. Onto the debate! My opponent is correct on the fact that my percents have changed, however he misquoted me in a sense. They said that I said that the DROPOUT rates are 10% and 30%, however they must realize that this is the COMPLETION rate. Also, I would like to clarify that the completion rate is 13%, meaning that the dropout rate is a whopping 87%! To refute their third statement, that MOOCs don't not provide quality education, I would like to say that my opponent took my point and carried it too far, exaggerated if you will. I simply stated that the learning style of MOOCs were simple, and do not necessarily provide the best education, however my opponent exaggerated my claim by saying that I "claim that MOOCs simply don't implying all educations provided by MOOCs are lacking". Therefore, I believe that this point, in a sense, is unjust considering he took my point and falsely built onto it. Secondly, my opponent begged to differ with me that watching a video and answering questions is learning. Ok, I agree with them about this. In some deranged mind, this may be learning. However, it is not learning at its finest compared to a classroom. In a classroom, teachers INTERACT with the students, and simply don't show them videos all day. Therefore, MOOCs do not necessarily provide the best quality education AS COMPARED to classrooms in schools that provide actual physical interaction from teacher to student. Another thing they said is that I misunderstood their analogy of the blind person being given limited vision, however I believe I did not, and still believe that this analogy is irrelevant. I believe this because they stated that a MOOC would have the same effect on a blind person I believe (I couldn't quite understand everything he wrote). However, think of famous blind person, say Helen Keller. Do you think she could have learned what she did from a MOOC? No! She could not have learned what she did without her teacher physically being there and touching her, helping her. Therefore, my opponent has provided an irrelevant analogy to the topic. Next, my opponent pointed out a false contradictions between my arguments. "My opponent claims that MOOCs are " not necessarily that much work" even though he or she claimed in the opening argument that they present the student with a challenge I would like to argue that these two statements greatly contradict each other." My first argument did not at all state that MOOCs present students with a challenge. My first argument was that MOOCs make discussion a challenge, and provide little to no teacher-student interaction. Therefore, once again, my opponent has brought up something invalid. Now, I would like to restate my arguments with fully linked sources, since my opponent asked me to provide full links so he can "evaluate the source" and "confirm it is trustworthy". Argument 1: MOOCs have not done more good than harm because they have made discussion a challenge for students. In MOOCs, it is impossible for professors to talk with hundreds of thousands of people, making discussion impossible and resulting negatively upon students. MOOCs, as we have stated, normally have over 100,000 students. This makes it virtually impossible for a professor to have a discussion with each and every student, sort out their problems, and help them learn better. Also, it creates chaos in a classroom. (Source - http://www.usnews.com...) In some colleges, there is a 1 to 12 teacher to student ratio, and at some are a 1 to 100 teacher to student ratio. May I say that the 1 to 100 student-teacher ratio is not provided by that source, but is simply common knowledge. (Source - http://www.katyjordan.com...) MOOCs have incredibly low completion rates. For the average MOOC, only 13% of students enrolled in it actually complete it or less. This argument shows that, in a MOOC, it is practically impossible to have a meaningful teacher to student discussion, possibly resulting in low grades and poor student performance. This could be because of a number of reasons. One of them is the large sizes of the MOOCs not allowing personal teacher-student conversations. Therefore, we believe that MOOCs have not done more good than harm. Argument 2: MOOCs have and will do more harm than good because, if they become the new thing to do, they may completely replace schools. Buildings will be gone, facilities will be gotten rid of. Universities and schools will go bankrupt being replaced by these free online courses, destroying the economy. Because of this, I believe that MOOCs are/will be harmful to society. As I stated at the beginning, I am screwed, and I still believe that. So, wish me luck! And, good luck to my opponent. I am sure he won't need it :)