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Investigating Massive Open online Courses (moocs): Challenges and Future Trend

Autor:   •  June 16, 2018  •  2,214 Words (9 Pages)  •  545 Views

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discussion on the knowledge.

In the study done by Jeremy Knox, an examined MOOC equipped with social platform in its own courseware has manifested the reduction of course sizes in view from both the instructionist and constructivist perspectives. It is found that the vast amount of students in a MOOC hindered the students’ ability to access existing knowledge as well as to interact and construct knowledge through dialogue (Knox, 2014, p. 171). The fact that excessive number of students can post on the course forum unrestrictedly would lead to the issue of other users’ incentive to discuss. This is what presumably led to the existence of small private online courses (SPOCs) as a counter measure to the existing problem. While people might be in doubt of the functionality of in-class social platforms to allow students create bonding, the cooperation of MOOCs with popular social networking sites have already been long established. As prompted ny Veletsianos, Colier, and Schneider, the linkage between MOOCs and social media, such like edX and Twitter, or different MOOCs platforms, for instance FutureLearn and edX, to enable the in-class connection among learners as a result to the slight probability of higher engagement with course materials (Veletsianos, Collier, & Schneider, 2015, p. 581).

“As education begins to sense global participation, what may be truly revolutionary and disruptive lies not in what the MOOC can do for the progress and betterment of the individual, but rather what the massive can do for education” said Knox as he concluded from the findings of his research (Knox, 2014, p. 174).

Educational Reorientation

Whether or not can MOOCs serve as a substitution to our traditional education, the fact that it has made a huge impact and poses threat to the education industry is indisputable. The very emergence of MOOCs has coerced educators to reconsider the insufficiencies and flaws under our current educational system. It is of most vitality for us to consider how both traditional and online education should coordinate as a mean to maximize the outcome, which is the conductive transfer of knowledge to every kind of recipients.

Insinuated by the vast usage of MOOCs, it is of concern on its influence towards our present education model. Dick Ng’ambi and Vivienne Bozalek have imposed that the existence of such highly accessible and quality MOOCs can threaten the livelihood of smaller institutions(Ng’ambi & Bozalek, 2015, p. 452). More emphasis should theerby be put upon the role of MOOCs in higher education. Quoted by Kate O’Connor, Professor Brown has claimed that “whereas I think now there’s a bigger picture around the MOOCs and that is well how do we actually incorporate open educational resources into our mainline programs” (O’Connor, 2014, p. 632). The future orientation of MOOCs were yet to be discussed.

While some insist that MOOCs has to alter its current model in order to play a bigger role in education, the contrary was suggested by Macleod et al. He suggested that the MOOCs maintain its position as the educational supplement for the well-educated while generating profit from the demand in certificates (Macleod et al, 2015, p. 62). The assertion is indeed supported by the previous findings, in spite of its unpopularity among most researches. Yorman Kalman has proposed that instead of transforming the current business model of higher education, MOOCs are likely to integrate with it (Kalman, 2014, p. 12). Also, as suggested by Burd, Smith, and Reisman in a related study, the future form of MOOCs should focus on drawing learners’ attention to a subject via MOOCs so as to lead them to enroll into their interested subjects in academic institutions. Two types of MOOCs, bridgeMOOC and brandMOOC, were proposed to prepare students for university education and promote students interest in applying for postgraduate degrees (Burd, Smith, & Reisman, 2015, p. 47). The trend of education is also perceived to be leaning more towards objective-oriented training. As Fretias et al has stated, “learning is changing from curriculum-focused to experience-centred design, linking more closely to 21st century skills” (Fretias, Morgan, & Gibson, 2015, p. 469). Therefore, one can tell that the changes on MOOCs as well as education in the upcoming future are tightly interrelated.

Conclusion

While MOOCs have created a whole new generation of distance learning, debates were also drawn in respect to the fundamental engagement problems to the pedagogy of MOOCs. Through the limited researches reviewed, it can be concluded that the current usage of MOOCs is limited due to the narrow crowd of motivated users.. In view of the dissatisfactory perseverance in MOOCs, it is of most importance that users review their motives for taking the course in order to bring the most out of the courses. Whereas it would be the obligations for educators to cogitate on the practice of MOOCs. How it should be incorporated into our educational system and how education itself should be remoulded. It is suggested that more extensive researches to be conducted in light of the insufficiency in the available studies.

References

Terras, M. M. & Ramsay, J. (2015). Massive online open courses (MOOCs): Insights and

challenges from a psychological perspective. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(3),

472-487. doi: 10.1111/bjet.12274

Carr, N. (2012). The Crisis in Higher Education. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/429376/the-crisis-in-higher-education/

Evans, B. J., Baker, R. B. & Dee, T. S. (2016). Persistence Pattern in Massive Open Online Courses

(MOOCs). The Journal of Higher Education, 87(2), 206-242.

Chang, R. I., Hung Y. H. & Lin C. F. (2015). Survey on learning experiences and influence of

learning style preferences on user intentions regarding MOOCs. British Journal of Educational

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