MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) is a new paradigm of education for anyone, anywhere, anytime. It came up with numerous opportunities both for students as well as teachers. Follow the post “MOOC and Technical Education” to know more about MOOC. In this section IgEn has discussed both sides of coin for MOOC in current education system and its impact on effective Teaching and Learning process.
![Massive Open Online Courses [1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.igniteengineers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/MOOC.png?ssl=1)
Advantages of MOOC:
(1) MOOC creates the opportunity for sharing ideas & knowledge and also helps improving lifelong learning skills by providing easy access to global resources.
(2) It improves cross cultural relationships which leads to collaboration between institution educators and learners locally and internationally.
(3) It gives an idea where I stand in the course in the current world as large number of students all over the globe would have registered for the same course on the same common platform and participate in the activities and discussion in the study group.
(4) MOOC enhances active learning. Research shows that students learn more through active learning (i.e. when they have assignments or discussion on an issue) rather than through listening to lectures. Students listen to lectures more attentively if they have been given a problem or task to solve before the lecture. In this regard the structure that most MOOCs have – short lectures alternating with assignments and quizzes – seems to be ideal. Of course, one could also do this in a classroom, but it would be more difficult to ensure that all students participate: some might need longer to assimilate the content of the lecture, and prefer to listen to it again before doing the assignment [2]. Peer-to-peer contact facilitated by MOOC can also trigger effective active learning.
(5) MOOC encourages flipping the classroom. Teacher-student contact time usually used for lectures could be used differently, e.g. for discussions, experiments, project and group-work, working with peers etc. Students watch lectures online at home and interact with faculty regarding their doubts while in class. It has been strongly advocated and demonstrated by Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, in the context of school teaching. Teachers get time to work with students on an individual basis.
(6) Knowledge sharing in Discussion Forum helps reflective and global learners along with active and sequential learners. Reflective learners who are not able to share ideas inside the physical classroom can put their ideas in discussion forum ad get the view points of others. Global learners who feel themselves lost in the beginning can share their diverse ideas on the forum and can get other’s suggestions to find their solution. To know about different types of learners follow the post “Different Learning Styles”.
(7) “No exam fever” encourages deep approach of learning against the surface & strategic approach of learning.To know more about different approach of learning follow the post “Different strategies of learning”.
(8) Peer evaluation provides the opportunity to learn via grading others. Because it is the best way to learn when you teach or grade someone else.
(9) MOOC provides the opportunity to learn from world class universities and from renowned instructors without being a student of the respective university while sitting in the any part of the world.
(10) MOOC opens up the facility to get free of cost “statement of accomplishment” signed by the instructor of the course, which someone completes in all respect according to the requirement of the subject. There are provision to earn the verified certificates with university logo and instructor signature on the payment of the course fee. Anyone can show these certificates at the time of job applications also. The employer can go to the corresponding MOOC provider database to get the information regarding the candidate. Some universities also started allowing to fulfill credit requirements of a degree from the MOOC courses.
Dis-advantages of MOOC:
(1) MOOC provides all the video lectures and slides along with all related reading resources. This gives the students scope for not going through the lectures gradually but whole lectures in a single day which does not lead to deep understanding of the concepts.
(2) Real time question answering is also not possible while going through the lectures.
(3) Technical courses needing physical hands-on practical exposures (eg. Civil, Mechanical, Electrical etc.) are quite tough to be delivered through MOOC.
(4) There is no opportunity for effective assessment methods like Q&A in classroom, surprise quizzes and presentations.
(5) No proper evaluation methods are there as automatic machine assessments and evaluations are not effective. Peer evaluation sometimes lead to discouragement among students which lead them to dropout from the course.
(6) MOOC style of education will gradually kill the care, empathy and respect involved between teacher and students in a physical classroom. It only increases the virtual social community.
If you need any more information regarding MOOC education, feel free to drop a comment and IgEn will definitely respond to it. We would appreciate if you can give valuable information and suggestions to the other students who need it under this post.
References:
[1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/mathplourde/8620174342/sizes/l/in/photostream/
[2] Michael Gaebel, “MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses – January 2014”, EUA Occasional Papers.
The first disadvantage mentioned in your article is not true. I am saying this because I take online courses (just for fun though and knowledge). Currently many MOOCs have come up with short lectures (like of 10 to 20 mins) one for each day. All the lectures are not provided on a single day. So a student does not need to do all the lectures in a single day, of course the exception being, if you have missed the previous few classes and want to catch up on to finish quizzes and assesments.
Well Swati,
Your point is correct. But my point was not focusing “whether a student should do all the lectures or don’t in a single day”. My point was as a student gets the study materials with him/her from the very beginning so he/she gets the scope to cover all of them in a single day. But yes we can claim that this is the fault of student rather than saying that this is the disadvantage of MOOC. I also agree in some of the courses, MOOC is introducing the course materials as the course proceeds. This is a good format and in that case the first disadvantage can be ignored.
What are the expectations from MOOC?
From a buyer point of view?
Dear Chirag,
MOOC is Massive Open Online Course. So, most of the time the expectation is to learn a subject online free of cost. Sometimes we get the opportunity to learn some subjects which we do not find in our local universities. Again the lectures are provided by very talented professionals from very reputed universities.
Sometimes we buy a particular MOOC to get a verified certificate so that you can produce the same anywhere as a proof of your knowledge on the particular subject.
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I appreciate your thought. It is for sure MOOC can never replace the university study, neither it can create the same environment which a classroom lecture can create. But it has its own advantages. No where there is a comparison between university classes and MOOC. Neither the post @igniteengineers is trying to show which one is better. It is just highlighting advantages and disadvantages of MOOC independent to university lecture. Nobody can disagree that we find some of the valuable courses in MOOC which are not even provided by the university during our curriculum degree.
what are the disadvantages mainly faced by the teachers in MOOC
In MOOC, teachers also face few challenges like
getting involved in some of the practical activities with students
A teacher generally doesn’t realize whether the students are understanding or not his/her lecture in MOOC
Evaluation process is difficult in MOOC
etc.