Learning How To Learn is the name of the course which Team MOOCtastic (myself, Karen, and Todd) selected to participate in through the online learning MOOC platform of Coursera. Although the course is set up week by week, the entire content is available at once, and our team has completed it – perhaps in the manner of binge-watching on Netflix.
Having a taste of such flexibility delivered in a user-friendly manner might make learners of the world hungry for lifelong knowledge-building (like gorging at a buffet serving Universities). It might impact teachers, who can spy on other post-secondary instructors worldwide, garnering new ideas with teaching techniques and approaches to bring back to their own learning environment. The big money invested along with the monstrous numbers of students and institutions involved in MOOCs implies there will be some sort of disruption to the status quo over time, where only real psychics, fate, destiny, and/or your Lord/Lordess know the true outcome. Are MOOCs essentially raising or lowering the bar in the education-delivery Olympics?
Learning How To Learn provides understanding, tips, and techniques for learning efficiently. Learners are encouraged to tackle motivation-issues, approach studies in consideration of how the brain operates, and embrace subjects of learning beyond what individuals feel they are naturally good at.
xMOOC providers such as Coursera deliver education from universities all over the world. The accessibility is at the core of their strength. I see real opportunities for MOOC-providers embedded in the new economy of contract-based work and the commonly forecasted future full of unfathomable jobs which don’t exist yet and are constantly changing. If such a future is inevitable, much of the knowledge gained in traditional four-year degrees may quickly become obsolete much like technology seems to, rendering such credentials to being like a bachelor of demonstrating one’s ability to learn. As a human drowning in the activities of my life, legitimately-recognized, affordable micro-credentialing, delivered through easily-digestible videos sounds to me like a dreamy universe. Will MOOCs achieve widespread legitimacy (as in university credits)? Will they be affordable? Will they remain open?
The music and film industries share a relatively recent history upheaved by digital technologies. There are multifaceted tradeoffs from such a trend. The pool of content has widened, accessibility has exploded, and there are both opportunities and grave consequences for content-creators. The dethroning of gatekeepers and curation provides more options for outliers while consumers must now wade through oceans of endless material to find what they like. Choices of education, music, movies, jobs, and even relationships become more accessible and disposable, there is more selection, and less of a coherent and straightforward culture, with all the bad, good, and everywhere in-between implications. It may well be that: MOOCs are to education as iTunes is to music, as Tinder is to relationships, as Wikipedia is to encyclopedias, etc., etc., to infinity and beyond!
Hi Angie,
I like your last line “MOOCs are to education as iTunes is to music, as Tinder is to relationships, as Wikipedia is to encyclopedias, etc., etc., to infinity and beyond!”….
Our team was pondering whether or not MOOCs are going to have staying power, or if that are another ed tech trend that will fall away in time?
You seem to be thinking the former, do have specific reasons why?
Hi Steve, thank you for your comment and question.
Well, I do not have a crystal ball, but there are an awful lot of people and organizations involved in MOOCs with a tremendous amount of money invested. If you think about my other examples: iTunes holds a significant portion of the music market and have played a major role in reshaping the industry, but you can still buy CDs and records, FM radio still exists; dating sites and social media have changed relationships, but people still meet, fall in love, and get married in regular ways, in-person; libraries must somewhere still have real, academically verified encyclopedias (even if they are electronic). So I believe MOOCs will have some impact simply based on the huge amounts of vested interest by users and providers, but the jury is out on how much and where the chips will land exactly. People still go to movie theatres despite Netflix, and I’m sure there will still be plenty of classroom learning for years to come. I’m not sure if organizations like Coursera and edX will end up dominating the industry, or if it will be more like Uber or Airbnb, where things have changed but the market is mostly still just normal cabs and hotel rooms, or if they will trailblaze then become obsolete and get usurped like Napster or MySpace.
It is also possible that even if current MOOC-providers have staying power, the name “Massive Open Online Courses” won’t be fitting anymore because of the dwindling massiveness and openness which is happening in some regards from the process of creating sustainable monetization.
In short, I don’t believe the effects of MOOCs will fully “fall away in time” whether any current provider and/or structure of them survives or not.
BAM!!!
Awesome response Angie!
I agree with all of your technological examples. I too think that MOOCs are here to stay….but in what form is yet to be determined
Thanks
Hello Angie!
I really enjoyed and learned reading your post, thank you. You put things in perspective and making sense, so that while going through the ideas you took me across different standpoints with regard to diverse subjects such as music, education, entertainment, technology, and even human relations!
I wonder what your take would be regarding AI, AR, and VR considering human-shaped robots are starting to arrive. There is one of these robots (Sophia, developed in Hong Kong) already bearing a Saudi Arabian citizenship!
Cheers!
Alfonso
Hello Alfonso,
It is incredible that a robot has citizenship! I have not researched AI, AR, or VR, but I am excited about the future possibilities and what we will see in our lifetimes. Will these technologies bring freedom or Frankenstein? I’d like to think that each machine will be somewhat specialized and aim to just entertain us or remove menial tasks so the entirety of intricate human skills won’t be overthrown, at least not right away lol. It makes for great science-fiction stories and future speculations anyhow! What is your take on AI, AR, and VR?
Hi again,
First of, I forgot to cite the manufacturer of “Sophia”, Hanson Robotics. And the fact and appearance of the robot (whose looks were inspired by Audrey Hepburn) reminded me of the movie Ex Machina (starring a good-looking robot too!), the film portrays the potential significance of AI.
Have you heard/read about Elon Musk (and others) being “fearsome” or “concerned” about AI more than about the potential risk of a nuclear war?
Here is a link to Sam Harris’s TED Talk on AI, I hope you find it useful.
https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_can_we_build_ai_without_losing_control_over_it
Ch(AI)rs! (intended to sound like “cheers”, lol)
Yikes Alfonso! Maybe my newfound fear of robots will make me more grateful for all my present-day drudgerous tasks like laundry and dishes, lol
Thanks for sharing! My oh my, what will we see in this lifetime?
In the smaller picture, what are some of the potential uses of MOOCs and other freely accessible content in the practice of the individual teacher/trainer? How might one’s practices change to take advantage of these developments?
Good question Irwin. Buried in my musings above, I did say I thought teachers could enhance their own techniques and approaches by seeing how others in their field approach the subject. I have a few music students (small, hobby-job) and I’ve broadened my musical understanding through MOOCs which trickles down to my students. Teachers could also encourage students to supplement their learning with MOOCs. I’ve pointed students in the direction of MOOCs. I’ve also taken plenty of MOOCs for no other reason than interest in the topic. I see value in MOOCs, even if they never gain large-scale accreditation.
Hi Angie,
“It might impact teachers, who can spy on other post-secondary instructors worldwide, garnering new ideas with teaching techniques and approaches to bring back to their own learning environment.”
I really hope so. There are some great videos online for instructors to learn from in MOOCs and elsewhere. If I’m teaching students a difficult concept, it only makes sense to get ideas from the best.
“Will MOOCs achieve widespread legitimacy (as in university credits)?”
I think they could do their own testing and certification. Khan Academy plans to create “globally recognized diplomas” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOP0R4GaoeY).
“MOOCs are to education as iTunes is to music”
You can always tell the Apple users as they have to throw in an Apple reference 🙂 Digital music sales have actually been declining for years, and in 2016 was surpassed by music streaming services (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-22/apple-s-itunes-overtaken-by-streaming-music-services-in-sales)