"MOOCS and practicing Life-long skills" by Jacey Gardner - Final Draft

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

Figure 1.1

Gose also discusses in his article the percentage of students that actually complete the course “With a $0 price tag and open admission to anyone in the world with a high-speed Internet connection, MOOC's inevitably report poor completion rates. More than 94,000 students registered this spring for "Introduction to Computer Science," one of the first courses offered by Udacity, but just over 10 percent earned certificates for completing the class. Most didn't get through the first lecture”.

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.1 shows the number of students that are applying for MOOCs and how many actually finish;  figure 1.2 shows the number of students that graduate from a Brick and Mortar college, the rates are much higher. Students are getting bored or can’t pay attention to the online courses when their professor is looking off into the distance or at an angle. They feel like the professor is not speaking to them and so they are less likely to pay attention; or they feel as if the information is irrelevant to them. If the information is irrelevant to them then why would they waste their time watching the videos? In figure 1.3 the chart shows how many MOOCS were started per month, which means that a lot of students apply for the online courses, but only about 10% of them finish and get their certificate.

Figure 1.3

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?

Online courses have started becoming quickly popular among students. They are great for students who cannot afford college and they are great for taking classes whenever and wherever you want, but there are some problems with them. Students are not getting to practice the life-long skills they are learning and are not receiving the hands on experience they need for a complete quality education. If the students can’t practice the skills then they do not have a full understanding of what it is they are supposed to know how to do, and when it comes time that they get a job in their field of study they will not know what they are doing. Careers such as Doctors, Nurses, surgeons, Dentists, orthodontists, engineers etc. need the hands on experience and practice of the skills they are learning. No one wants to go to a surgeon who only got his degree online, and has no practice in completing a successful surgery.

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

College can be a great experience; you get to make new friends, live on your own and experience life in a different way. You get an education, in an environment that is full of peers, professors, and TAs “, Teaching assistants,” that can help you complete that education. You can pick a major of your choice and learn the skills you need to gain a job in that career. You get to practice the skills you learn and the college has a one way ticket to an internship that can eventually land you a job. MOOCs have a lot of good qualities but also a lot of problems and things that need to be fixed before they can be completely successful. 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. The internet is expanding and making it easier to talk to other people, but it can also isolate students from the education, knowledge and social interactions needed for a great college experience, as well as denying them the practice of skills and hands on experience they need for future employment and to make their career the best it can be.





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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB7IQco8aQw

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