"Buy None, Get All Free: The Ineffectiveness of Massive Open Online Courses in a Society" by Emily Morales

Buy None, Get All Free:
The Ineffectiveness of Massive Open Online Courses in a Society

        Formal education has been around for quite some time, always in a brick and mortar setting. Then, with the invention of the Internet, people suddenly found themselves able to take educational courses online, but these are very different from taking courses through a physical classroom setting. And now, as of 2008, some online courses are offered for free and to thousands of people! Imagine waking up really early in the morning, and then heading off for a day of fly fishing. Anyone is allowed to fish as long as they pay for and get a fishing license. After a full day’s work of fishing next to many others, you return to your car to leave with a full cooler of fish, but as you leave you are stopped and told you cannot take the fish with you, and that you can only take the memories and what you have learned about fishing with you, but must leave your hard work behind. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) capture this idea in a nutshell. Massive Open Online Courses, MOOCs while open and available to thousands, are ultimately ineffective in teaching individuals and preparing them for future careers.

What is a MOOC? 

Not Quite.

        In 2008, the first MOOC was launched. MOOCs allow thousands of people to take the same academic course online through universities and online course companies, or from real collegiate level professors or other teachers, for free; however, no college credit is currently received (Cormier).

The courses include lectures from professors uploaded to the Internet, and tests, quizzes, and finals for students to take. There exists a MOOC on almost any subject that one might desire to learn about. Whenever the opportunity of something free presents itself to us as humans, we tend to take advantage of it; however, we also enjoy reaping the rewards of our hard work, and in this case knowledge is the only reward. While knowledge is a very helpful thing for individuals to have, when it comes to getting jobs, having a degree to go along side that knowledge is typically more helpful.

Short learning periods with not enough deadlines

       While there are many faults with MOOCs, one of them is that the concepts from the courses are not always actually learned by the students. In Marc Clarà and Elena Barberà’s article “Learning Online: Massive Open Online Courses (Moocs), Connectivism, And Cultural Psychology” they argue that the ways the material of the class is represented sometimes leaves “both learners and teachers [in] a crisis about what is worthy to know,” meaning that they were unable to process the information given to them completely (Clarà & Barberà). Taking a course inside a school with teachers and assistants at your fingertips makes learning a lot easier rather than staying up late at night to finish an assignment due for an online class within the walls of your bedroom, especially if in both scenarios you have a difficult time with the course material. When students have the resources available, such as teachers or teacher assistants (TAs), to help them understand the content or explain things they do not understand, it makes learning a lot easier. They can also help students fix mistakes made on assignments instantly through feedback given in person, and not through email, which can be seen as being a much less personal level. These concepts also do not develop overnight, and sometimes it is difficult to stay motivated to do all of the required assignments in a timely manner when taking an online course.
       In classroom courses offer schedules that are enforced by instructors which help ensure that one cannot procrastinate for too long, by having assignments due daily. Online courses tend to have more broad deadlines for assignments. One friend I have taking an online math course has all of his assignments due at the end of the week each week, and each week he does his assignments the night before they are due. While this may be one case, I cannot help but think that more people are like this than just he. By procrastinating and not having a formally structured classroom, students are better able to procrastinate and not let the information learned settle in. They tend to struggle more as a result of not having help always available.

Three types of learning

Barrie Todhunter, a professor of business at the University of South Queensland, discusses that online education is different or inconsistent with learning that goes on in the classroom in his article “LOL — limitations of online learning — are we selling the open and distance education message short?”. He talks about how necessary and useful having a physical learning environment actually is by discussing the three types of learning which are “’on-campus,’ ‘external’ and ‘web’” (Todhunter 234). On campus learning is when the information is delivered “face-to-face” and students and teachers interact with one another (Todhunter 234). This is when the teacher is there to help and answer any questions an individual student may have, and the teacher can help with exactly what they need in a timely fashion. Web learning is described by Todhunter as a course taking place entirely online where there is no face-to-face interaction between the teacher and the student (238). The problem with web learning is that the university did not consider “how students perceive studying using online materials and the barriers students face when studying online for the first time” (Todhunter 239). When courses are held online, students have much harder times receiving help when trying to find assignments hidden within the professor’s website, not to mention the difficulties that often arise while trying to complete the actual assignment. I may have the theoretical knowledge of how to change the oil on a car from a MOOC I took; however, unless I have hands-on experience as well, I will never know if I am fully able to actually change the oil. Online education is vastly different from in-classroom education for students, with some flaws that may make it more harmful than helpful for students.

All the hard work without the rewards

        If someone takes an online course, and puts in all of the work, they usually want the credentials to show that they put in the time and actually took the course. Currently very few Massive Open Online Courses actually offer credit, so for the amount of people that sign up for the courses, the percentage of classes that allow students to get credit for the course is minuscule. In Dave Cormier’s video, “What is a MOOC?”, he points out that at this point in time, individuals enrolled in these courses are currently unable to take them for college credit and can only gain knowledge from them (Cormier). I may have the theoretical knowledge of how to change various parts on a car learned from a MOOC, but the nearby mechanic shop will not hire me unless I have the degree that recognizes and proves that I know how to work on cars and am not simply lying.

Cheating

       One may argue that it is easier to cheat in a classroom when surrounded by peers instead of when alone. With this I would like to refer back to the example of my friend taking a online math course. The material is often difficult for him to understand, so he often has his friend over to help him with the homework and any other assignments. More often than not, because he is procrastinating and they have deadlines to meet, she ends up doing most of the work, and sometimes even does all of the work for him. Now I understand that  as Anne Eisenberg said in her New York Times article, "Keeping an Eye on Online Test-Takers" it is no longer possible to cheat on tests by opening different windows in a web browser or looking up the answer on Google, because students are now monitored as they test by various analyzing programs, and that the program watching you finds the pattern in your behavior and then decides if you are cheating or not (Eisenberg), but that does not mean that you cannot have your friend sitting beside you telling you the answers, or actually taking the test for you, which leaves the computer unable to detect the cheating taking place. People always find ways around rules, especially when they are poorly monitored.

Current Problematic Solution

       The current solution for what should happen next with Massive Open Online Courses is that fees should be charged, low fees of course. Michael Cusumano, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management,   explains his fear in his article, “Are the Costs of ‘Free’ Too High In Online Education?” is that by charging students for classes but also trying to keep the fees very low, that courses will then become standardized (Cusumano). If only generic courses are offered to the masses, then the removal of the more unique courses currently offered will begin, and individuals will lose many possible options of courses to take. If this happens, then students will no longer be receiving an effective education.

Solution

       My solution to the problem of ineffective MOOCs is that they should be combined with in classroom education. In a YouTube video titled, “When is E-Learning Ineffective” the emotional connection to learning is discussed. Online education works best when the subject being learned is systematic and logical, and not emotional. Humans have emotions, and so it is natural to need an emotional connection to the subject when learning. People have, and use emotions daily which makes online courses less effective because emotion has a hard time be transferred through a computer screen than through a teacher’s lecture to students in a classroom setting.

       Perhaps by uploading teacher’s lectures online and having the classroom time used for homework and actual problem solving, the teacher’s time can be utilized in the most effective way, and students are still learning online, but also being engaged with in classroom activities. In another video titled, “Students Voice Their Opinion on Online Courses,” most of the students said they disliked online learning because they found it boring, or the student was an auditory learner and had a difficult time learning while staring at a screen for hours. These students truly did not enjoy themselves while taking online classes, despite the numerous courses available to them, but if the class was partially held in a classroom, it would be a lot more helpful to the students, and better able to connect with them.

       As far as how to fund MOOCs is concerned, the university through which the student is taking the course could sponsor ads on the sidebar while the students work or listen to lectures. This would be funded by various companies, which will then allow students to focus on their studies and not have to worry about how they will afford the next class they want to take. They could then allow the professors to teach, and perhaps use the different colleges and universities that the instructors teach at to be the place where the student receives their credentials from. If not this, then the company offering the MOOC could come up with their own certificate, and perhaps slowly over time these certificates would begin to be accepted as valid by society as long as the student passed the course.

MOOCs have a great potential

       Massive Open Online Courses have many positive attributes to them. Unfortunately they currently have many faults, too. To improve MOOCs, the next step is to begin to slowly incorporate these online course aspects into the traditional classroom setting, as a way to slowly bring the two ways of learning together. This can be as simple as watching one video online or having students do research in a database, just to show students that learning does not have to only take place through a book. With each small step toward a new style of education, mankind can take a giant leap towards a new tomorrow.

Works Cited

Apachejournalism. "Students Voice their opinion on online Courses". Youtube, 2011. Web. 8 Nov 2013.

Clarà, Marc, and Elena Barberà. "Learning Online: Massive Open Online Courses
(Moocs), Connectivism, And Cultural Psychology." Distance Education 34.1
(2013): 129-136. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.

Cormier, Dave, perf. "What is a MOOC?". Writ. Alexander McAuley. 2010. Web. 8 Nov 2013.

Cusumano, Michael A. "Are The Costs Of 'Free' Too High In Online
Education?." Communications Of The ACM 56.4 (2013): 26-29. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.

Eisenberg, Anne. “Keeping an Eye on Online Test Takers.” The New York Times. 2013. Web. 8 November. 2013.

Motiaddict. "Students Voice their opinion on online Courses". Youtube, 2011. Web. 8 Nov 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XzUj-GQi90>.

Todhunter, Barrie. "LOL — Limitations Of Online Learning — Are We Selling The Open And Distance Education Message Short?" 252. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.