Summary: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are courses,
which are taken online, and are open to the public. The courses offer more student-driven
learning, but some have a high instructor involvement; whereas, some are less
involved. There is no enrollment limit
for students. At Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence MOOC, “more than 160,000
participants” were enrolled, yet others may have only have had about 100
students. A course, which was a test course, for K-12 students, was created by
Verena Roberts called Exploring Our Digital Footprints Together (#DigiFoot12) a
year ago. So, it seems there is an
interest for MOOCs for all age groups.
There are two types of MOOCs:
1.) cMOOCs
are more focused on projects and learning in groups with peers and varied involvement
with instructors. This type is generally smaller than the average MOOCs, yet
the students can excel by creating groups or “cohorts” to gain their knowledge
and learning skills.
2.) xMOOCs,
which are the new-age MOOCs, have thousands of students that are involved in
usually only computer sciences or mathematic courses due to the fact that
students can learn the material easier at their own pace than other courses.
xMOOCs are so enormous that there is virtually no instructor involvement.
Q: Are there any negative aspects to MOOCs?
A:
Yes and no. It depends on the opinion of the persons. Some might think
that students are more likely to drop out because there are no in-class
sessions, while others might think that there is a wider range of
learning opportunities. For example, one of the xMOOC participants from
Australia, Liz Renshaw, mentioned that she “found
the lack of support, encouragement, acknowledgment, or collaborative
spirit extremely disturbing, unsettling, and uncomfortable”. Some people
may not thrive more learning on their own at their own pace, whereas,
other might need the instructor-student collaborative support.
Q: Do you think that a MOOC would benefit K-12 students, in your opinion?
A:
I personally think that kindergarten through fifth grade may not be an
efficient learning environment for them. I feel this way because I don’t
think that children at that age will not have developed enough “push”
to be able to learn; the in-class courses are vital for younger students
with plenty of guidance from teachers. Eighth graders and up by then,
should be able to have enough self-motivation.
