As part of our critical inquiry into MOOCs, I have reflected on switching my thought process from consumer to critical observer. Personally, I have a lot of experience with distance education, more so in the formal education realm but web-based nonetheless. My experience with reviewing a MOOC has been an exercise in self-reflection as well as critical observation.
We chose to review The Science of Well-being course through Yale University and hosted by Coursera. To date this course has over 3.9 million students ‘enrolled’ and a 4.9 star rating with over 11,000 reviews. Despite this seemed popularity, most MOOCs and even courses from Coursera can have a dropout rate above 90% (Reich & Ruiperez-Valiente, 2019) . I’m sad to say I will only add to this statistic as myself and my team enrolled in the course and will not complete it.
Initially I had the idea that this type of learning technology would be similar to other courses I have taken through distance. What I have found to date is this MOOC has a distinct flavour of commercialization to it. There are pop ups and ‘atta boys’ that keep prodding you along the course material in response to completing a section. These are clearly autogenerated and start to become ironically less motivating as they pop up. The video lectures seem more staged than a low budget daytime TV show with a strategically placed culturally diverse audience sitting pleasantly in the background.
Several of the exercises link the learner to other data heavy online quizzes or characteristic surveys that I can only imagine is benefitting from the web traffic in some hidden way. The focus seems to be on volume not learning.
My concern with this MOOC is the subtle feeling of being just a number. Much like McDonalds’ advertising its massive success in the “billions and billions served” campaign, I get the distinct feeling that the term “massive” in MOOCs is spot on. Call me old fashioned, but I still feel that I’d rather learn in an environment where I feel like a person.
References
Coursera. (2022). https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being
Reich, J. & Ruiperez-Valiente, J.A. (2019). Science 363(6423):130-131