MOOCs are good for the autonomous learner: what is new?

As I read this article from the Chronicle this morning, I'm once again startled to see how those brought into the world of online learning through the MOOC door seem to ignore everything that has been done in the field of open & distance learning (ODL). 
MOOCs Are Largely Reaching Privileged Learners, Survey Finds - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The article concludes that MOOCs are reaching privileged learners. For those in the ODL field, this seems as expected and obvious. MOOC requires students to be independent - the autonomous learner, so well explained in Transactional Distance Theory by Moore. For a student to become an autonomous learner, an important process of meta-learning needs to take, in which the learner is aware of their learning process, and is empowered to become independent. This does not happen in vacuum and much has been studied and published in terms of the best practices in instructional design and pedagogy in order to make students achieve such independence. A MOOC itself will not promote such autonomy given its limited scaffolding components. Only a student, who is already independent could benefit from such environment. Students who have had no access to good quality education, in which autonomy has been slowly built, are for the most part unprepared to take part in these courses. 

The other important point is that if we are looking at MOOCs in English for an international audience, we are expecting that these foreign students be able to read and listen to English. In most countries, only students with access to high quality education will have such skills. (If the surveys had been done for MOOCs in other languages, then we might be reaching out to a larger group...).