I have now participated in about six MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). For someone like me – independent learner; learn at my own pace but able to keep to a schedule; like to hover in online discussions; value exploring related resources – MOOCs are an efficient way to learn about topics of interest to me via high quality resources created by people who know what they are talking about.
This NY Times article talks about initial research indicating that MOOCs are not particularly successful, but the meaning of all of the numbers is unclear. Lots of people sign up for the courses, but few keep up after the first few weeks; even fewer complete all of the work. On the face of it, if we measure success as the percentage of those who signed up that complete, then they are a failure ,but that measure doesn’t work for me. Since the courses are free, signing up is little more than saying, “I’m somewhat interested.” Indeed, I have signed up for many courses than I have taken.
But MOOCs are more than just the numbers who complete the courses. They are important for the idea of the potential reach of online education, ad for those attendees who do complete a course, or even those who simply make good use of the resources, any given MOC is “successful.”
The problem with MOOCs – if that’s the right term – may well be in the design. The design – at least of all the ones I’ve seen – is pretty much the same. The content is divided into weeks, each week having a series of video lectures and readings; some have multiple choice quizzes (pointless) to check understanding; some have writing assignments – peer graded – or small projects, and discussion forums. That’s pretty much the extent of the course, though there are often some infographics thrown in as well. Whether a course is any good- at least for me – is primarily a function of how good the video lectures are and how relevant the readings are. The quizzes and assignments have added little value; even if they are well-designed, there is no meaningful feedback available, in which case they are done in a vacuum.
So for me, it comes back to whether I can get value out of the content on my own. I stopped one course because I found the presentation style of the teacher so grating that I couldn’t get anything out of it. The potential for providing the content using different media – video, text, images, websites – makes it that much easier to stay engaged. The key point of a good MOOC, then, is how do you keep students engaged; how do you get them to interact meaningfully with the content in what is a completely impersonal context.
Transformative Educational Technology 