MMVC15 4th annual 3-day conference August 7-9

MOOCs : A revolution or a failure?

Some numbers

• 400+

• 2400+

• 16-18 million

What is a MOOC?

Two key features (Wikipedia, 2012):

1. Open access - anyone can participate in an online course for free

2. Scalability - courses are designed to support an indefinite number of participants

MOOCs and Open Education Timeline

Major MOOC Providers

Coursera Udacity edX

Pros Free unverified

certificates of completion.

Biggest catalog. The best of the

discussion forums by comparison, but nothing to brag about.

The greatest variety of partners.

Transcripts in many different languages.

iOS, Android and Kindle Fire apps.

Free “honor system” certificates; fee-based verified certificates; advanced certificates for specialized work.

Pros Start anytime.

You don’t have to wait for the course you’re interested in.

Move at your own pace. Caters to self-directed students.

Lots of programming and computer science classes.

More focus on current on workplace skills.

iOS and Android apps.

Pros Free unverified

certificates. Big catalog from

interesting and prestigious university partners.

Great for the sciences and medicine.

Some foreign language classes.

Free “honor system” certificates; fee-based verified certificates; advanced certificates for specialized work.

Cons Too structured for

some learners. You have to go at the pace the professor releases the videos and assignments.

More variability in quality.

You might have to wait awhile until the course you want is made active.

Cons No more free

certificates. Smaller

community. You’ll mostly be working on your own unless you pay for the premium version.

Difficult if you need deadlines to keep you on track.

Very little in foreign languages.

Cons Frustrating

discussion forums. More variability in

quality. No apps.

Why are they so popular?

• Only need a reliable internet connection• The majority of them are free • Thousands of courses available• Huge variety of subjects • No real requirements for anyone to attend

Why are they so popular?

• credit toward a higher education award• Future economic benefit• Development of personal and professional

identity• Enjoyment and fun• experience or explore online education

Some scepticism

• delusion to believe the masses can be educated in this way

• high dropout rates (Stein, 2013).• supposed to be reaching poor and uneducated

people but not in reality (Mazoue, 2013)• Risk only the IT literate individuals use them,

feeling of exclusion for the others (Yuan et al., 2013)

Some scepticism

• concerns about the pedagogy and quality of current MOOC courses (Yuan et al., 2013)

Towards a future of openness in higher education

Are MOOCs a revolution or a failure?

(Image c/o Md saad andalib on Flickr.)

How to choose the right MOOC

• The course length and estimated weekly workload

• Who the instructors are – there is often a short biography of the course instructors

• The course syllabus • The course format – will it be delivered by

video, audio, written text etc? • Course Schedule

How to choose the right MOOC

• Scheduled MOOC versus Self-Paced MOOC• Determine the amount of time you have to

devote to a course.• Tangible portfolio• Don’t assume there’s consistency between

classes.

Some statistics

• Today, there are nearly 600 publications that reference MOOCs (Rutter, 2015)

• Teachers are already a big audience . A study of 11 MOOCs offered by MIT last spring found that nearly 28 percent of enrollees were former or active teachers. (Pope, 2014)

Remember!