The Modality
Our group (Team MOOCtastic) chose to focus our LRNT 526 studies on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) through the platform of Coursera. In order to have an immersive experience within our selected modality, we enrolled in a course entitled Learning How to Learn. In this blogpost, I will provide a brief reflection based on my learner-perspective of the MOOC and my specific topic of interest within the modality.
My Experience
Learning How to Learn is presented as lectures delivered in short video segments with pop-up questions, reflective surveys, and quizzes which are digitally graded and provide instant feedback.
Charming, creative tricks, with information fed to learners in bite-sized chunks, implies some inspiration may have been deliberately drawn from learning theories involving motivation, engagement, and cognitive load. The creators utilize a green screen with fun graphics for illustrating the knowledge with healthy doses of metaphors for enhancing understanding and entertainment.
So far I am unsure whether the knowledge gained is somewhat fluffy but still useful like a smart meme, or if it is rather heavy and important information that is administered in a cleverly-palatable way. Either way, the course is pleasant and I will walk away with some useful tips for studying and tackling procrastination.
The agreeable and convenient nature of learning through this modality shows promise for enhanced, enjoyable education of the future. The path to an ideal, open, accessible, utopia of learning has hurdles.
Specific Individual Issue of Exploration
Team MOOCtastic is conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of the broader topic of MOOCs. My individual branch of this is threats. Based on recent surface-investigations, it appears as though perceived-legitimacy and business model sustainability are the predominant threats to the the long-term survival and success of MOOCs.
What do you think?
I invite readers to comment, ask questions, or respond to my questions below with facts, opinions, or resources:
Are MOOCs capable of transferring dense, comprehensive learning that is legitimate and recognizable?
Will issues of identification and scalable grading be solved?
Even if MOOCs are innately valuable, will they ever be widely recognized and perceived as so?
Will MOOCs ever rise to a position notable enough to contend with universities?
Does a sustainable financial model exclude the original, philanthropic intentions of MOOCs?
Will the future of education see cross-institutional degrees, where credits are obtained from cooperative institutions from all over the world?
Is the future of MOOCs at risk from threats related to legitimacy and financial sustainability, or is education’s status quo at risk from the influence of MOOCs?
Have you ever participated in a MOOC before, and if so, what do you think? What did you like and dislike? Do you see a dead-end, promising future, or infinite possibilities?
Good set of questions – this should take you fairly deeply into the current MOOC research, particularly around the ongoing question of sustainability – which could be a good focal point for your study. Please keep sharing your observations from inside the course too, as those are important as well.
Hi Angie,
Great topic, we too are looking into MOOCs, only focusing on EdX.
I will attempt to answer a few of your posted questions.
Are MOOCs capable of transferring dense, comprehensive learning that is legitimate and recognizable?
At first thought I would think so, as long as they are well designed and know their intended audience…which is tricky as pretty much anyone can sign up for a MOOC.
Even if MOOCs are innately valuable, will they ever be widely recognized and perceived as so?
It seems that some institutions are recognizing MOOCs for precredits and to aid in acceptance to their traditional programs, so I believed that MOOCs will in time be widely recognized.
Will MOOCs ever rise to a position notable enough to contend with universities?
I think that platforms like edX will merge MOOCs with traditional institutions so that they will not be competing with each other, hopefully complimenting each other.
Will the future of education see cross-institutional degrees, where credits are obtained from cooperative institutions from all over the world?
This would be very cool….although not it is probably a ways off before this becomes commonplace
Thank you for your contributory answers to some of my questions Steve 🙂