Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are the hot new trend in online education (at least in the US). I’m one week into my second MOOC through Coursera, and here are some thoughts on the experience.
In general, I think that MOOCs are a great option for motivated learners with a specific goal. The course offerings are far more specialized than what you’d find at a local adult education center or community college, and the price (most often free) is certainly appealing. You can work on your MOOC anywhere with an Internet connection, at any time of the day or night. Many MOOCs consist of online video lectures: great because you can pause the video, rewind it, look up a quick Wikipedia entry of a concept you don’t completely get, and so on. For example my MOOC goal is to learn more about the science behind the international development documents I translate, so I’m currently taking Epidemics: the dynamics of infectious diseases, offered by a team from Penn State.
The range of MOOCs is really staggering: right now on the Coursera home page, you can sign up for courses ranging from Jazz Improvisation (taught by professors from the Berklee College of Music), to Bioinformatics Algorithms (UC San Diego), to a French course on business valuation (HEC Paris). The schools that offer these courses are top-notch, and thus they present an opportunity to take a course that is logistically and financially out of the reach of many people. MOOC providers are also getting more savvy about what their students want: in the course I’m currently taking, you can get a certificate of completion (for getting at least an 80% on all assessments) or a verified certificate with distinction (for getting 100% on all assessments). Coursera’s newly launched signature program has already earned over $1 million, focusing on students who want to earn a credential from their MOOCs.
In just these two experiences, I’ve learned that all MOOCs are not created equal. The first MOOC I took was a general public health class and it was fine. It was certainly more interesting than reading a public health textbook, especially since I do not have a strong formal science background. However, the course was not really created for the online learning format: most of the video lectures were taken with a camera in the back of the room during the professor’s live lectures, and they were uploaded in fairly long segments. In addition, the fact that the in-person students seemed a little disengaged from the material (professor would ask questions and have to wait for answers, or no one would answer) detracted from the experience. By contrast, the Epidemics MOOC that I’m currently taking is outstanding. The class has a huge team of instructors and developers, and was obviously developed specifically for this purpose. The videos are short (about 6 minutes each) and have excellent animations that accompany them. The videos are narrated by a bunch of different people, so they don’t get monotonous. In addition, the staff seems to be spending a huge amount of time contributing to the online discussion boards for the class. So, a huge shoutout to the Epidemics MOOC staff!
In my opinion, here are some caveats about the MOOC experience: if, like me, you’re doing a MOOC because you realize that, uh-oh, you should have paid better attention in those “throwaway” core classes in college? You’re in the right place. I was too busy thinking lofty literary thoughts in college (and graduate school for that matter) to worry about the difference between macroparasites and microparasites. Now, I’m regretting that impulse, but Coursera has come to the rescue. In addition, I think that some of the classic criticisms of MOOCs, such as “there’s no interaction with the instructor,” “all of the assessments are multiple choice and graded by computer,” and so on, also apply to many of the courses one would take as an in-person student at a large research university. Many of my friends who went to such universities were largely taught by grad students during their first few years. If you took an in-person course with 250 students in a lecture hall, you would not get personal attention or individually-graded assignments, and you’d be paying a lot more than $0 for the experience.
Personally, I do not see MOOCs as a substitute for a solid, in-person, general education. I would not encourage my own daughter to bypass an undergraduate degree in favor of MOOCs. I agree that the human interaction element of education is important, and I even agree that grad students can be excellent teachers. But for those of us who already have that general education and want to fine-tune our knowledge, I think that MOOCs are a great solution.
Corinne, I’m a MOOC fan, especially after having interpreted for Daphne Koller (one of Coursera’s founder) this summer. I enrolled in a psychology class in Spanish, called Ser Más Creativos (Being More Creative) and the video production was top-notch. These were videos of the instructor by herself, on camera, with animation, etc. Also, there was a link to a Facebook page, where you could actually attempt to meet the thousands of people taking the course. There was also an app that showed all the people in Colorado taking the class, so I didn’t miss the interaction (if that was something that I needed to pursue, I had the tools).
My motivation for enrolling in the course was to work on my C language and to listen and write in Spanish. And check this out, for some of us working in “more common languages”, Coursera has some interesting offers: 417 courses in English, 20 in Chinese, 16 in French, 12 in Spanish and 6 in Portuguese (yay!).
Thank you so much for this review, Corinne! I have been wondering whether Coursera might be of interest. I’ll have to look in to taking one. Online learning is a common topic of conversation at my house, since my fiancé is a math professor.
I do agree with you, it’s a great option to expand our knowledge in any given field. I am currently two weeks into Video Games and Learning at Coursera and I fully enjoy it. The videos are really well made and there are many possibilities to interact with fellow students on the course forum.
I have recently posted my thoughts on the very same topic on my blog, http://www.cfbtranslations.com/blog/moocs-massive-open-online-courses-a-brief-review/ and pointed out a potential caveat: Since most MOOCs are free, they need to be sponsored by somebody. And if that sponsor has their own agenda, it’s very easy to pick and choose the presented data to fit their own personal agenda instead of presenting a balanced overview. Thousands of people, who are not scientifically trained to question data that they are presented with, walk off with incomplete or worse, very wrong ideas.
For this reason I dropped out of an MOOC I was enrolled in. OTOH, I successfully completed two very interesting and useful courses which I review in the above blog post. I am also currently taking two very different MOOCs on the very same topi to improve my writing style, and I will post another review of these on my blog soon.
Hi, All, I am taking the same course on Epidemics that Corinne is taking (she recommended it to me and I also translate International Development texts). This is my first MOOC and it is obvious that, like Corinne said, they are going out of their way to make this a great course for the medium being used (Internet/remote access). Carola – I read your post too. I see your point about the risk of people using such a course for the their own agenda, but also see that the there are “social consequences” that apply that may keep that tendency in check. Although, like you said, some people participating may not be discerning and “fall for it,” it sounds like a lot of people in that particular course felt like you did and may have even dropped out like you did. Classes like that will be subject to “supply and demand” in that they will not be as popular as well-run classes, so that is the risk people who abuse the medium take. Also, with more “boring” classes that do not put effort into adapting for the MOOC delivery model (Internet/remote), they will not be as popular either. Even though these types of courses are free, there is going to be competition: classes that are not appealing will simply not get as many attendees or exposure. My thoughts!
Thanks for this Corinne. It’s great to have you out there doing things and reporting back.
Great to read how others are finding the MOOC experience. I’ve just started one of only two Coursera classes available in German (computer science for economists). Seems to be a pretty good way of increasing your exposure to a source language in a different environment, as well as exploring a new angle on various topics. Loving it so far because Zurich isn’t exactly in commuting distance for me!
I’ve had hit and miss experiences with MOOCs, of three courses one has been outstandingly good (Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets on Coursera), one just good and one pretty bad. They have however all been worth doing, even a bad course gave me access to the class’s forums where we shared links, discussed ideas and generally shared our enthusiasm for the subject. I came away with books on my wishlist, ideas for what I could do as an independent student next and a few new people to follow on Twitter. MOOCs are never going to be a replacement to university courses but they make a great top up or replacement to night school classes.
I think that MOOCs are a great alternative, no, additional opportunity. As you said, they really aren’t a substitute for a real live solid general education, but they are something one can ALSO benefit from. I mean, the one doesn’t necessarily cancel out the other.
I had a viscerally negative reaction to the whole MOOC concept. Having read your post, however, I may give MOOC’s a chance.
One more thing on MOOCs: I just found out that brick-and-mortar institutions are encouraging students to fill some soft pre-reqs with MOOCs. Case in point: a psychology student who needs to do some cognitive science and linguistics is encouraged to learn some “soft” programming from MOOCs.
I was just prompted by a colleague to write about my MOOC experience and impressions, and as I am still in the planning stages of a blog, I did in the old fashioned way (my article is to be published by two German translation association journals, MDÜ and ADÜ Nord Infoblatt, soon). I have to admit that I was highly skeptical of the idea initially, but was instantly convinced once I started my first MOOC (Writing in the Sciences, then on coursera.org, since repeated on Stanford’s platform, taught by Kristin Sainani, who also teaches Statistics in Medicine – highly recommended!). I haven’t been able to finish all the courses I started (unfortunately, one has to work…:-)), but the majority of what I have tried (most of them via coursera.org) was really great, both from a content and a presentation point of view. I highly recommend trying this new teaching/learning opportunity and watch it evolve.
Hi Corinne, the focus of your blog aligns with a project we are working on. We would love to get your perspective for a MOOC book project we are working on.
Call for Chapters: The MOOC Case Book: Case Studies in MOOC Design, Development and Implementation: http://moocbookproject.blogspot.com
Authors are invited to submit proposals that cover a variety of issues related to the design and delivery of MOOCs. Chapters focused on issues and challenges affecting one (or more) of the eight dimensions of the E-Learning Framework are greatly encouraged. Individuals with experience in designing, developing, evaluating, or facilitating a MOOC are encouraged to submit a proposal.
Please contact us for any question.
Joseph Rene Corbeil, Ed.D.
The University of Texas at Brownsville
Associate Professor of Educational Technology
Tel. 956-882-7540 | Fax 956-882-8929
rene.corbeil@utb.edu
Vicky Sandoval
The University of Texas at Brownsville
vicky.sandoval@gmail.com