MOOCS and Practicing Life-long Skills
What is a MOOC and are they effective in teaching students? MOOC stands for “Massive Open Online Course” which is essentially online college courses. The courses were originally designed for students who needed extra help in class; they started out as tutoring videos and eventually developed into full college courses. Another idea for designing the MOOCS was for students who could not afford to attend a brick and Mortar College could still get the education they desired without having to pay thousands of dollars. MOOCS are completely free and anyone can enroll in the course, which also presents an opportunity for those that want to go back to college but don’t have the time or money to attend because they have a family to take care of, or a full time job.MOOCS can be taken anywhere and at any time as long as you have internet access, so it is comfortable and easy for students to get college education in their own homes. Although MOOCS present a great opportunity for students all over to world to further their education and gain a greater knowledge of the world around them, one problem is exactly how effective are MOOCS? Are the students who participate in these Massive Open Online Courses really getting the quality education they need for a future career? Do they receive the hands on experience the need to complete their education? This is a topic that is discussed greatly among the MOOC community and many students and parents are concerned they are not getting experience that future employers will look for on a resume; as well as the training they need to be successful in their field. MOOCS can be great for students that want to gain knowledge of the world, but essentially MOOCS are ineffective for gaining a well-rounded education that focuses on the subject of the course and gives the student life-long skills they need to complete their education and earn a degree in their specified field. An effective education would give the students the knowledge and understanding they need, but also they would get the extra time to practice their new learned skills before they enter into their career, and join the working world.
Online College and offline help
Most students when they think of going to college they think of it only as “reading text books” or “listening to lectures” but it is more than that. Students that attend a Brick and Mortar college are also gaining practice of the life-long skills they have learned, and the hands on experience they need to complete their education, and prepare themselves for future employment. Online courses can help students who wish to gain knowledge of the world around them, but for the students that wish to gain a degree, or turn their knowledge into a career, online courses are just not enough. Steve Kolowich, author of the article “MOOC students scored higher with Offline help” discusses that students who take online courses perform better in the course if they have outside help “online learners who took the first session of "Circuits & Electronics," the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's hallmark MOOC, those who worked on course material offline with a classmate or "someone who teaches or has expertise" in the subject did better than those who did not, say researchers at MIT and Harvard University.” This problem of students needing extra help outside of online courses begs the question of how good of an education are the students receiving just online? For students that wish to major in a field, MOOCS are not enough to give them the proper education they need to complete their degree.
Online Teaching strategies: Are they working?
Another problem that students face with the MOOCS is that some professors don’t face the camera straight on, and so the student doesn’t feel like they can connect and get a one on one interaction with their professors. An article that supports this statement was written by Ben Gose. In his article “4 Massive Open Online Courses and How They Work” he discusses four professors who teach their MOOCS in different ways and how it affects the student, “SIT DOWN AT YOUR COMPUTER [sic] for the opening lecture in Gad Alton's "Operations Management" course, and the first thing you notice is that the professor is looking off at an angle. You want to snap him back around so that he makes eye contact”, “and another professor “Gautam Kaul's "Introduction to Finance" course goes for a different feel. He looks right at you and speaks in a conversational, almost conspiratorial voice. It's as if he's tutoring you one-on-one, letting you in on life-changing secrets like the time value of money.” Both of these different ways of teaching could be the difference in whether a student passes or fails the course. If not all the professors are going to look at the camera so you can feel like they are teaching you one on one or that they actually care about the student than the student is less likely to pay attention and get anything out of the course.
Statistics of students passing MOOCS
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MOOCS for education? Or public relations?
In a recent YouTube video “MOOCS – Hype or opportunity for higher education?” Dr. Michael Power, an associate professor at University Laval in Quebec Canada, discusses how he thinks that MOOCS are really good for public relations online, but there is not enough substantiality to the course for students to get education. He declared that although there is a progressing of learning the students online are not gaining the skills that are needed, and the courses are not focused enough to give students quality education. An article titled All Hail MOOCs! Just Don’t Ask if They Actually Work in the New York Times by John Marcus, goes along with what Dr. Power says. “No one really knows if students learn anything in a MOOC. Scant existing research suggests that the success rate of online education, in general, is poor. And even the people behind MOOCs are becoming concerned about sky-high expectations, which they say represent a misunderstanding of their purpose.” Students who take online courses are less likely to complete their courses than those students who attend a course at a college. They do not gain the skills they need to complete their education and the hands on experience they require for future employment.
Dr. Michael Power feels that MOOCs are headed in the wrong direction. He feels that if online courses worked more towards having a focused goal and a focused learning that they would be far more effective. Also if the students and professors came together to have a conversation and they could get to know each other and pull together resources to come up with an idea or solution to a problem to further enhance the students education, that would push the MOOCS in the direction that would most effectively teach the students. The way a MOOC works is the Professor records himself giving a lecture on a specific topic and the students watch the videos. Then the professors give assignments to the students but most of them do not complete the assignments because there is no need, whether they fail or pass the class doesn’t affect their credit they receive to get their degree. A Brick and Mortar college, the professor teaches and lectures the students and the students have the chance to ask questions and gain skills they wouldn’t while taking an online course. Then they assign homework and the students complete it because it does affect their credit and their degrees. Then as the classes get higher and more advanced the students begin to practice what they are learning and they gain the skills they need to complete their education and get future employment. They get to practice what they learn in the classroom and can get internships and jobs working in their field, but under the supervision of someone who has more experience than them. They gain the experience and hands on practice that they would be able to put on their resume that would impress future employers and gain them a job.
How can we fix MOOCs?
As I stated before in my blog, online courses are great for students who simply want knowledge of the world, but for the students who wish to earn a degree or to gain a career in their field of study MOOCS are ineffective. The students who take an online course are not getting to practice the skills they are learning and so their education is only partially complete. It is harder for them to find employment if they have no experience on their resume before they apply for a job. If colleges could make it more affordable for students that wish to attend college, by handing out more scholarships or lowering tuition prices, or maybe even if the government stepped up and helped with tuition, then MOOCS would essentially become non-existent, except for students who need extra help with a class. The student could then go online to help them re-iterate the information they are learning and then they will better be able to put it into practice. Test scores might improve if students had the extra help, but the courses themselves are not substantial enough for students to get a well- rounded education that focuses on the subject of the course and gives the student life-long skills they need to complete their degree and gain future employment. I suggest that students attend a brick and mortar college if they can, and if they do need the extra help or someone else to explain it to them, MOOCS are great, but unless something changes in the MOOC community it is just not substantial enough to give the students a complete education.
In Conclusion
Works Cited
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSxTw3pXCj4
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Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice 13.3 (2013): 1792-1797. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
Todhunter, Barrie. "LOL — Limitations Of Online Learning — Are We Selling The Open And
Distance Education Message Short?." Distance Education 34.2 (2013): 232-252
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Connectivism, And Cultural Psychology." Distance Education 34.1 (2013): 129-136.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
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Experiences During A Massive Open Online Course." International Review Of
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KOLOWICH, STEVE, and SARA GROSSMAN. "MOOC Students Scored Higher With Offline
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1. You are arguing that MOOCs are essentially ineffective because they lack interactions with peers and teachers, hands-on experience and the inability for online professors to keep the student's attention
ReplyDelete2. I believe your audience is the parents and students thinking about taking MOOCs. You direct your argument at proving that MOOCs are ineffective and therefore are trying to convince students to not take MOOCs instead of going to a brick and mortar school. Maybe try and specify the audience a little better so the reader isn't guessing who the audience is intended for -perhaps in the intro.
3. Good use of images. I like how you gave explanations for them, they are very relevant.
4. Headings helped a lot.
5. I liked how you pointed out that you can't get hands-on experience with MOOCs, I hadn't even thought of that. It was a very engaging paper. Good job.
6. Format for the pictures overlaps with some of the text. Could spread the pictures throughout the blog instead of in one spot.
1. The argument of the blog is that MOOCs are ineffective because they lack the social interaction that students have at a traditional school, and it is more difficult for the professor to keep the students on task.
ReplyDelete2. The audience to me is the parents and students that are considering these MOOCs as a way to further education. You aim the argument at students more than parents because of the way your argument is trying to sway them towards a traditional college/university. Maybe try to specify who the audience is in the first few paragraphs more.
3.Very good use of the graphs. Good job of describing what each graph represents. 4.Very impressive use of subheadings to divide up the blog.
5.I liked the subheadings, and how you used each disadvantage of MOOCs to explain why they are ineffective.
6.Utilize more pictures in different spots. The area where they are all at seems a bit cluttered.