Sarah Pexton! MOOC-Online courses are just as prestige at Universities

Sarah Pexton

Allison Porter

Writing 150          

15 November 2013

Issues Paper

The evolution of technology has increased drastically. Newer and more advanced forms of education has developed. As university tuition increases, online courses appear to have just as great of a value, and seems to be more obtainable. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) strictly focuses on education. However, a fee is required to receive the credit. Through the support of top universities, online courses are able to evolve and become known. College professors are provided for the online courses, which helps effectively educate people.  Online courses are just as prestige compared to a traditional degree through a university.   

The dramatic increase in online education, particularly MOOCs, presents researchers, academics, administrators, learners, and policy makers with a range of questions as to the effectiveness of this format of teaching and learning. The impact of MOOCs has been largely disseminated through press releases and university reports. The peer-reviewed research on MOOCs has been minimal. The proliferation of MOOCs in higher education requires a concerted and urgent research agenda.

In the work field, a university degree is crucial to be hired and to be successful. In today’s perspective a high school diploma does not go far. Sometimes, where the degree is earned is just as impressive. It is very competitive to be accepted in top ranked universities. Declining enrollment and tight staffing makes it difficult to offer some elective courses because not enough students sign up; but if the course is taught online, students from schools across the county can take part. Now where computer science, programing, engineering is especially important with advanced technology, online courses seems to be the only way to learn and become educated. An effective education does not necessarily mean that a student needs to sit through a lecture and be taught. Students could enroll in online classes just as for regular ones and would receive the same credit, Doser said, “They would not all log in and ‘attend’ a lecture at the same time as in a traditional class, but rather would check in for assignments and required materials and complete the work on their own schedule.”

In earlier generations, getting an education meant going to class, sitting in a classroom or lecture hall listening to the professor, and participating in discussions. Now, something as simple as raising your hand in class, or asking your neighbor to borrow a pen could become obsolete. In the growing phenomena of online education, thousands of students are logging into class, and instead of going to a physical building, they participate from the comfort of their home or local coffee shop.

Many students and educators praise online courses for their flexibility and their unique way of engaging with students. However, some question the quality of education a student can receive from only interacting with his/her professor and classmates virtually.

Dr. Jennifer Friend, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Foundations at School of Education at UMKC, tells us that online courses have transformed the way we learn by making the educational experience more individualized and more student-centered. The online component can take many forms in education. Classes can be offered in an exclusively online format in which students connect to the lectures, discussion boards, and assignments entirely online from their home or work. In hybrid courses, students spend part of their time on campus for the face-to-face portion of the class, and the other part of the course online. Also, some classes rely mainly on traditional lectures with additional resources and forums online. Whether it’s logging in to watch a lecture, or simply learning the curriculum online, it appears to be the effective way of learning.

Online courses are becoming the ideal form of education. Technology is rapidly growing and progressing, too fast in order for schools and education systems to catch up. It’s valid to keep up with the world’s views and expectations. It’s only natural for an online education or a MOOC degree to be the respected way to be educated. Nonetheless, the phenomena of online education is growing and more and more students are taking some, if not all, of their courses online. Despite online course growth, educators affirm that common institutions will not become obsolete. They will merely need to incorporate technologies more robustly into their programs.

As MOOC makes progress in making its reputation phenomenal and make the education valuable, MOOC has many supporters that help meet its funds and makes the education more reliable and trust worthy. For example, “MOOC Research Initiative (MRI) is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of a set of investments intended to explore the potential of MOOCs to extend access to postsecondary credentials through more personalized, more affordable pathways. Grants will be made available in the range of $10,000 – $25,000. The grant is led and administered by Athabasca University. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports Athabasca University and interested academic institutions through research grants to examine the efficacy of early MOOC models for various learner audiences and in a wide variety of contexts.”

There are many individuals that contribute to the MOOC program that come from an area with a decent reputation. These supporters provide guidance and direction: Yvonne Belanger and Stacey Clawson from the Gates Foundation, Marti Cleveland-Innes from Athabasca University, Jillianne Code from University of Victoria, Shane Dawson from University of South Australia,Keith Devlin from Stanford University, Tom (Chuong) Do from Coursera, Phil Hill the Co-founder of MindWires Consulting and co-publisher of e-Literate blog, Ellen Junn from San Jose State University, Zack Pardos from MIT, Barbara Means from SRI International, Steven Mintz from University of Texas, Rebecca Petersen from edX, Cathy Sandeen from American Council on Education, and George Siemens from Athabasca University. All of these individuals have help create something out of MOOC. They’ve helped make it a reliable program.

Due to the numerous funds and support that MOOC receives, this helps make MOOC be looked upon as an effective way to be educated and obtain an affordable degree.

Andrew Ng is the cofounder of Coursera; a Silicon Valley startup that offers free college-level classes to millions of online visitors. In Coursera’s online world, where there’s no need to follow traditional academic calendars, the online class is enjoying a remarkable burst of popularity. As the accompanying chart shows, Coursera currently is offering classes as short as three weeks. Its most common offerings run just six weeks. And classes of 10 weeks or more constitute just 27% of Coursera’s current menu of 335 classes.

What’s making conciseness so appealing is Coursera’s classes typically experience two waves of attrition. The first involves people who sign up for classes and then never attend a lecture, or give up after a few minutes. That sort of casual browsing doesn’t bother Coursera insiders. The site is designed to make such window-shopping easy.

But the second pool of dropouts is more vexing. Some students start out with strong commitment, but then, as Ng ruefully explains, “life gets in the way.” Coursera’s average student age is about 30, which means a big percentage of its user base consists of people with full-time jobs, who are trying to carve out a little personal time in the evenings or weekends to take a class. For such people, the longer that a class is scheduled, the more likely their initial good intentions are likely to be overwhelmed by unexpected personal obligations.

Make the class more compact, and such disruptions are less likely. Coursera works collaboratively with individual professors to set up their classes’ timelines, so there’s no rigid requirement that every course be short. But Coursera’s current catalog includes some highly ambitious eight-week classes such as “Neuroethics,” “Introduction to Logic”, “Bioinformatics Algorithms,” and a lot more. Digital education is the future.

As traditional universities become more and more competitive, the classroom environment becomes increasingly dull and unappealing, where the learning rarely takes place.  Online courses such as MOOC are finding new and creative ways to help individuals obtain a college education. For example, Instructure, another form of online education, reached out to UC Irvine and entertainment company AMC to partner on a free MOOC based on a show about a zombie infestation, “The Walking Dead.”

Four faculty have signed on to teach different modules over the eight-week course, using the zombie apocalypse to examine social structures, public health, physics, and math. “For example: A little girl gets her head decapitated in one swing,” Instructure co-founder Brian Whitmer says. “In physics, could that have really happened?”

Sarah Eichhorn, a professor for MOOC, will be teaching math in the Walking Dead MOOC. She’s modified existing equations for how disease spreads to account for zombie mechanics, like that fact that when someone dies they don’t stay dead. She’s excited about the opportunity the MOOC affords her to spice up math for students who might not otherwise be interested. “We are taking something people are already interested in, zombies, and using the opportunity to show them academic disciplines,” says Eichhorn.

Aside from demonstrating people love zombies enough to study them, “The Walking Dead” MOOC shows how the MOOC format can be used to experiment and innovate with news ways of teaching and engagement. MOOCs make education accessible, frequently for free, to anyone with a computer. But students don’t have to finish the courses if they get bored, and the onus is on the MOOC instructor to make learning interesting enough to keep people around.

MOOC is always trying to find new and effective ways to improve online education. Through numerous supporters, top ranked universities, financial support, creative teaching techniques, MOOC can provide a degree just as prestige compared to one received in a university. Technology is always advancing and schooling must keep up with it. It’s the rational thing to; let technology evolve and let school evolve with it. That’s why online courses need to be praised and not looked down upon. The future is relying on students and individuals to adapt. The advancements in technology cannot be learned in a traditional classroom. People need to work with technology, and online courses is the most effective way to learn. Online degrees should be looked upon with great value.