THE MERITS AND DEMERITS OF MOOCs

A Report By:

Varad Joshi

Arnav Vijaykar

Shantanu Seth

Dev Shah

Shreyansh Chajjer

Pradyot Kumar Khatua

Hardik Verma

Introduction to MOOCS

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• A massive open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web, with the option of free and open registration, a publicly-shared curriculum, and open-ended outcomes.

• A MOOC is designed for the participation of large numbers of geographically dispersed students.

• MOOCs are a recent development in distance education which was first introduced in 2008 and emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012

• MOOCs integrate social networking, accessible online resources, and are facilitated by leading practitioners in the field of study.

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What is a MOOC

• Different MOOC courses have different requirements and also different mode of capturing mass participation.

• There are several different types of MOOC, some requiring participants to sign up, others with content and activities openly available to anyone with a web connection. Some are free of cost and others charge a minimal amount of fee for providing the participants with the certificate of completing the course.

• The main features of MOOC is freely accessible online resources, no age restriction, and it can be accessed anywhere and can be completed in any timeline , i.e., flexible provision, allowing learners to increasingly determine where, when, what and how they learn, as well as the pace

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About MOOCS

Massive • Typically free and credit-less • Being offered by elite universities through partnerships with MOOC providers

(such as Coursera)

Open • Open to anyone with an Internet connection

Online • Very large and often have a student enrollment so big (as many as 50,000 or

more) that faculty cannot respond to everyone individually

Course • Designed to give students automatic or peer-generated feedback

History of MOOC

!The word MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier , from the university of Prince Edward Island for a course offered by the University of Manitoba .

! A MOOC is an open education movement that is found online.

! It influences connectivism where learning is successful and networks are created in different fields.

! 2004- The term connectivism was developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes.

! 2008- The first MOOC was presented at the University of Manitoba, Canada and it consisted of 2200 learners.

The History of MOOCs

STEPHEN DOWNES

GEORGE SIEMENS

! 2010 – Cormier made a video about MOOCs and it was uploaded onto YouTube.

! 2011 – MOOC prepares freshman college students for college requirements.

! 2012 – Harvard's first MOOC has 370000 students taking part in it. New York Times calls 2012 the year of the MOOC.

! 2013 – There are so many cMOOCs and xMOOCs to count accurately .

The History of MOOCs Continued

Characteristics∗ Scale of numbers – no participation limit ∗No formal entry requirement ∗Connectivism ∗Use a variety of (new) social media and online

tools

∗Learner-centred ∗ Increased student participation and self-direction

∗ Facilitators create the environment not way of learning

∗ Scattered chaos ∗ High drop out rate

RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS

!Production Resource Requirements Platform Costs

▪Platform providers enter revenue sharing agreements

▪Most of the revenues earned remains with them

▪Other Optional Services means extra additional fees

!Assessment ▪Evaluating a large number of students

▪Enough professors to attend the all the students

▪Enough TA’s to make sure queries of each student is solved

!Obtaining Copyright ▪ Personal Time involved in obtaining various

permissions ▪Copyright of texts and images

▪Modifying content before every new iteration

Consumption Resource Requirement➢Time required to find a MOOC that is relevant to the

instructors’ existing course ➢Adaptation Cost: Familiarity with the material ➢Finding supplementary material ➢Space Cost ➢Professor’s Salary ➢Cost Of Technology ➢Certification Cost

CHALLENGES AND CRITICISM

▪ NO ESTABLISHED CRITERIA

! Don’t have set learning objectives that applies to all participants.

! Lack of validated assessment criteria.

▪ LOW COMPLETION RATES

! Providing value that enables higher completion rates.

▪ CREDIT vs. NO CREDIT !Credit-earning students connect better than the rest. !The word “open” seems contrary to mooc philosophy.

▪ ACCESSIBILITY !Lack of accessing, understanding or engaging with

course content.

▪ VARIED INSTRUCTION INVOLVEMENT !Role of instructor varies.

!Students must be responsible for their own

learning.

!Grading is imperfect.

!Cheating is a reality.

CONCLUSION➢ ACCESSIBLE: Students can access courses online

offered by foreign institutions without actually going there help in improving lifelong learning skills by providing easy access to global resources

➢ Flexible: MOOCs help to create an opportunity for sharing knowledge and ideas

➢ COST EFFCETIVE: Students can access these courses free of cost or at a low cost

RECOMMENDATIONSIMPROVING THE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE DATABASE

➢ Improve and innovate on pedagogical aspects: methodologies, content formats, and assessment.

➢ Promote research about MOOCs. Innovation and new practices such as MOOCs can be improved with research.

➢ Analyse the possibility of mutual benefits.

➢ Keep moving towards quality. Beyond quantity of MOOCs and users, the focus on quality is essential for sustainability

➢ Include national, regional and transnational cooperation as a great opportunity in developing MOOCs and MOOC-like concepts

➢ Work on standards related to MOOCs: quality standards and technical standards

Improving the Quality of MOOCs

Considering Various Aspects➢ Be aware of cultural and linguistic context to

avoid a new intellectual colonialism

➢ Build on the experience of open and distance education universities when developing MOOCs

➢ Promote the development of public policies about open learning (including MOOCs) at country and institutional levels