{"id":644,"date":"2020-04-21T08:54:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T12:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/?p=644"},"modified":"2020-04-22T07:54:11","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T11:54:11","slug":"addressing-barriers-to-access-in-moocs-critical-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/addressing-barriers-to-access-in-moocs-critical-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Addressing Barriers to Access in MOOCs: Critical Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\">\n<ul>\n<li class=\"entry-title\"><span style=\"color: #333333;font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 16px\">Earl Einarson, Jeff Goodes, Leigh McCarthy, Sue Reid, Marta Samokishyn<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-video\">\n<div style=\"width: 558px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-644-1\" width=\"558\" height=\"396\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/155\/2020\/04\/MOOCs-Collage-draft-.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/155\/2020\/04\/MOOCs-Collage-draft-.mp4\">https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/155\/2020\/04\/MOOCs-Collage-draft-.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Our team examined\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coursera.org\/learn\/manage-health-covid-19\/home\/welcome\">Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During Covid-19<\/a>,\u00a0a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) delivered by Coursera and created by Steve Joordans, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and Director of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.altlab.ca\/\">Advanced Learning Technologies Lab<\/a>. Using this learning event as a case study, our team looked at the question: How do access barriers in MOOCs impact the \u201copenness\u201d and usage of MOOCs?<\/p>\n<p>We believe this beginner-level course was an appropriate choice to examine openness and accessibility as its subject is of almost-universal appeal during the Covid-19 pandemic (Anderson, 2020). MOOCs have been trumpeted as a learning medium accessible to all: \u201cThe appearance and proliferation of massive open online courses (MOOCs), which are open to any Internet user, in 2011 was supposed to completely erase the boundary of unequal access to acquiring and assimilating knowledge\u201d (Semenova &amp; Rudakova, 2016, p. 229).<\/p>\n<p><b>Digital Divide<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During Covid-19 is offered as a free course. This is laudable, but it must be noted that Coursera does derive a tangible benefit from learners\u2019 registration: they are now Coursera members. This gives Coursera an opportunity to market other courses which are based on their freemium model: enrollment is free but other elements including official acknowledgement of course completion requires payment: \u201cPaid courses provide additional quizzes and projects as well as a shareable Course Certificate upon completion\u201d (Coursera, 2020). This is at odds to the original intention of MOOCs to offer educational offerings to people who are disadvantaged, since \u201cMOOC advocates suggested that MOOCs could include people who were traditionally excluded from higher education\u201d (Lambert, 2019). While over forty million people have taken its classes online, Coursera is far from an idealistic venture: the company has been valued at over one billion dollars (Lunden, 2019).<\/p>\n<p>Joordans\u2019 Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During Covid-19 offers an accessible learning experience on a number of fronts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>it is relatively short requiring less than eight hours of effort;<\/li>\n<li>it is broken up into easily digestible parts;<\/li>\n<li>it uses plain language.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The approach of the instructor is affable and disarming, which supports the inclusionary philosophy of MOOCs. However, there are questions to be asked about Mind Control\u2019s delivery medium of online video. People\u2019s access to bandwidth and devices continue to dictate educational opportunities in an increasingly digital age and global economy. Pulling back and looking at the larger digital divide created by socio-economic conditions, there are deeper issues that require policy changes to address historic economic and political disadvantage (Grace, Stratton, &amp; Fonseca, 2019). Critics of MOOCs posit that advances in technology have not made them any more accessible, leaving the digital divide intact, despite promises to democratize education. \u201cIn fact, Coursera (2013), a leading producer of MOOCs, confirms this discrepancy reporting high participation in North and Central America and Europe, but no recognizable participation on the continent of Africa, West and Central Asia, and the post-Soviet states\u201d (Mathews &amp; Landorf, 2016, para. 29).<\/p>\n<p><b>Content Divide<\/b><\/p>\n<p>MOOCs are characterized by a content divide in terms of language access, and consequently inherent cultural biases. The course, Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During Covid-19 was just this week translated into Spanish, Hungarian, and Serbian (Personal communication, Steve Joordens, April 16, 2020). Such translations are done not professionally, but voluntarily by course participants, which lends itself to questions surrounding the authenticity and quality of the content that reaches non-English speakers: what is potentially\u00a0<i>lost in translation<\/i>. A recent study conducted by Grace, Stratton, and Fonseca (2019) examined the creation of MOOCs\u2019 language content, establishing that \u201cEnglish language courses account for over three-quarters of all courses available to users\u2026[While] five languages of instruction, English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Arabic account for 95 percent of all courses\u201d (p. 2004).<\/p>\n<p>Whereas \u201cMOOC advocates suggested that MOOCs could include people who were traditionally excluded from higher education\u201d (Lambert, 2020, Introduction, para. 2), Lambert identifies gaps in the literature with respect to MOOCs inclusion that deal with lack of research on vulnerable populations (unemployed, refugees), Indigenous communities, as well as\u00a0 gender inequalities in MOOC education (Lambert, 2020). Haber (2014) touches on some issues and controversies surrounding MOOCs (such as user demographics, high drop-out rates, credit-earning, demands for MOOCs, security, openness). According to Rohs and Ganz (2015), socio-economic status of learners has a direct impact on their educational practices and skills (including their self-directed capacities for learning) and can further deepen educational gaps.<\/p>\n<p>MOOCs such as Mind Control offer the promise of delivering quality education to the masses: \u201cThe shimmery hope is that free courses can bring the best education in the world to the most remote corners of the planet\u201d (Pappano, 2012, p. 2). However, there are real issues which take some of the shine off this bright high-tech star. The digital divide that socio-economic conditions around the world have created, specific to online learning, have deep roots that require national policy changes to adequately address historic economic and political disadvantage (Grace, Stratton, &amp; Fonseca, 2019).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0References<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Anderson, P. (2020, March 28). High anxiety in America over COVID-19.\u00a0<i>Medscape<\/i>. Retrieved from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.medscape.com\/viewarticle\/927711\">https:\/\/www.medscape.com\/viewarticle\/927711<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Coursera. (2020). About. Retrieved from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/about.coursera.org\/\">https:\/\/about.coursera.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Grace, R., Stratton, C., &amp; Fonseca, F. (2019). Content matters: How online language content\u00a0 gives rise to digital divides.\u00a0<i>Social Science Quarterly,<\/i>\u00a0<i>100<\/i>(6), 1999-2016. doi:10.1111\/ssqu.12691<\/p>\n<p>Haber, J. (2014).\u00a0<i>MOOCs\u00a0<\/i>. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.<\/p>\n<p>Lambert, S. (2020). Do MOOCs contribute to student equity and social inclusion? A systematic review 2014\u201318.\u00a0<i>Computers &amp; Education<\/i>,\u00a0<i>145<\/i>. doi: 10.1016\/j.compedu.2019.103693<\/p>\n<p>Lunden, Ingrid. (April, 2019). Online learning startup Coursera raises $64M at an $800M\u00a0valuation.\u00a0<i>TechCrunch<\/i>. Retrieved from:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2019\/04\/25\/online-learning-startup-coursera-picks-up-103m-now-valued-at-1b\/\">https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2019\/04\/25\/online-learning-startup-coursera-picks-up-103m-now-valued-at-1b\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mathews, S., &amp; Landorf, H. (2016). Developing a framework to evaluate the potential of global learning in MOOCs.\u00a0<i>New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development,<\/i>\u00a0<i>28<\/i>(4), 3-14. doi:10.1002\/nha3.20157<\/p>\n<p>Pappano, L. (2012, November 2). The year of the MOOC.\u00a0<i>The New York Times<\/i>.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/11\/04\/education\/edlife\/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html\">\u00a0Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/11\/04\/education\/edlife\/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rohs, M., &amp; Ganz, M. (2015). MOOCs and the claim of education for all: A disillusion by empirical data.\u00a0<i>International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning<\/i>,\u00a0<i>16<\/i>(6), 1\u201319.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/doi\/\">doi<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.19173\/irrodl.v16i6.2033\">: 10.19173\/irrodl.v16i6.2033<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Semenova, T. V., &amp; Rudakova, L. M. (2016). Barriers to taking massive open online courses (MOOCs).\u00a0<i>Russian Education &amp; Society<\/i>,\u00a0<i>58<\/i>(3), 228-245.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earl Einarson, Jeff Goodes, Leigh McCarthy, Sue Reid, Marta Samokishyn &nbsp; Our team examined\u00a0Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During Covid-19,\u00a0a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) delivered by Coursera and created by Steve Joordans, Professor of Psychology at the University&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/addressing-barriers-to-access-in-moocs-critical-inquiry\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lrnt526"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}