Online Learning:
Campus 2.0
This
article discusses the history and the possibilities of online learning through
MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses. Although I have not personally registered
for one of these courses, they have been recommended to me and I know people
who have. I chose this article to learn more about MOOCs and to compare its
findings with my own experience of online learning and elementary learning.
MOOC’s
are basically what their name describes them as, Massive Open Online Courses.
Essentially, courses taught by esteemed professors at various universities are
open and free to the public through an online video streaming system. According
to the article, the courses were first designed because of the expected
increase in higher education registration in the years to come. The word
“massive” refers to thousands of students registering for the courses. To my
understanding, one cannot receive the exact same credit as you would receive
being enrolled at the university, but there is some type of certificate system.
MOOCs have been seen as a success for several reasons. One reason in particular
though is that people not normally able to attend a class by, for instance, a
Stanford university professor could learn the same material. This article explains
the success story of an 81-year-old male, a working single mom, and a prodigy
child.
Although
MOOCs have been highly successful, there are still some kinks being worked out.
While courses may have thousands or hundreds of thousands of students registering
for them, about 15% of those students do not complete the course. I know that
even with our online course I was worried I would forget about it! The Online
Learning: Campus 2.0 article also discusses the issue of self-motivation
preventing people from completing the courses. I think that this issue in
particular relates to elementary students. Can intrinsic motivation be taught?
I am not sure, but I do think it can be learned. The article mentions that
peer-to-peer collaboration would increase motivation and ultimately completion
of MOOCs. This seems to be true of elementary students too, social interaction
increasing motivation.
I
am generally in favor of online courses. I agree that they do take a certain
amount of self-motivation and focus but they provide more opportunities to
learn. At UT, I liked the collaborate type of online course and felt that it
was somewhat more personal than being in a large classroom. I also like the
blogging format of this course. I think that there does need to be some social
interaction with online courses and students need to be able to somewhat learn
on their own. I have high hopes for the MOOCs and maybe I will look into
registering for one myself.
Are the MOOCs free to register for? I have heard about this program before, I wondered how it would compare to the courses you take while enrolled at a university. Even if you do not receive college credit, I'm sure this would be a great option for people studying for CLEP tests or even people who just want to learn about something unfamiliar to them. Thanks for posting! I meant to check this out a while ago, but it has since slipped my mind!
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that the article mentions that peer-to-peer collaboration would increase motivation and ultimately completion of the courses. I do think peer interaction, like blogging, helps motivate students. I like online learning because I am a single mom raising a 3 year old and working a full time job. Online learning has allowed me to work toward a degree I otherwise would not receive if I had to travel to campus for every class I have took. I have only had to travel to Knox for one night class, the other was at our school and rest online. I had never heard of MOOCs. Great reflection!
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