In recent discussions about the role of online learning in higher education issues of Open Education (OE) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become increasingly important. On the one hand, for-profit educational start-ups such as Coursera, Udacity, and the MIT and Harvard-founded non-profit platform edX have been launched. In some places, phases of trial and experimentation are going on while elsewhere MOOCs are regarded as major initiatives. At the same time, Open Educational Resources (OER) is widely used as an umbrella term for a variety of free content initiatives, and processes of diversification of types of MOOCs (cMOOC, xMOOC, vMOOC, bMOOC, etc.) as well as meta-MOOCs (mMOOC) including considerations on the MOOCification of education are taking place with no end in sight. -- On the other hand, related topics have become subjects of theoretical interest, not least in critical pedagogy. However, differentiated critique is rather sparse so far. The paper starts with an outline of critical arguments brought forward in academic discourse followed by an explication of respective understandings of critique or criticism. Finally, the contribution aims at sketch of context sensitive forms of critical thinking between Skylla of “media phobia” and Charbydis of “media euphoria” as well as beyond claims for de-governmentalization which – examined in more detail – often turn out to be claims for re-governmentalization on other levels.

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