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
Hi Emma,
I find your thoughts here both relatable and challenging! I often find myself asking what is probably a common question in online learning: How can we scale-up within our resources but still maintain quality? Easy-peasy, right?! 😉
This feels like a strong statement, but I believe that healthy, authentic relationships between all participants is the key to this, meaning learners-learners, learners-facilitators, staff-staff, etc.
Still working on answers to this, and I am really enjoying the connections I see in many of our cohort’s recent blog posts! 🙂
Thanks,
Alisha
Hi Emma, thanks for your observations about your MOOC experience. I think that an interesting perspective to explore here maybe learner analytics as we discussed in LRNT525. I would be interested in seeing how students interact with a MOOC. What are the behavioural patterns for students who complete the course? How often do they log in? What do they click on? Likewise, what are the patterns for students who don’t complete the course? Do they skip over content often? At what point do they start accessing the course less frequently? I would be more surprised if they told me MOOCs didn’t track this learner data! The question is what they are doing to use the data to drive complete rates (if they are trying at all).
Hi Emma,
Thank you for your post. It is really thought-provoking and your comment that your group’s chosen MOOC had “a distinct flavour of commercialization to it” (that’s a fabulous description, by the way!) is concerning. I agree completely that anyone engaging in learning should still feel like a person, regardless of whether learning is occurring in a F2F or digital environment. I worry that edtech is becoming increasingly commercialized and for-profit, which of course does not consider the needs of the learner first. Your focus is timely and important. I’m looking forward to seeing what you discover!
Amber