As MOOCs is on the rise. It will
have its supporters and its critics. I found an article which discusses the
benefits and challenges of a MOOC. I want to discuss the challenges it lists:
1.
It feels chaotic as participants create their
own content
2.
It demands digital literacy
3.
It demands time and effort from the participants
4.
It is organic, which means the course will take
on its own trajectory (you have got to let go).
5.
As a participant you need to be able to
self-regulate your learning and possibly give yourself a learning goal to
achieve.
Looking at the list of challenges,
it shows they all have the similarity on the user being self-reliant. Users create
their own content, it demands time and effort, and self-regulation to name a
few again. These are reasonable concerns, and to the average person who hasn’t
even taken a normal course online, this may be overwhelming. This may be a
drawback for MOOCs and cause potential users to not engage in it. There are
also many learners who just aren’t self-motivated, especially for a course that
is required and not personally chosen. Giving yourself a learning goal to
achieve, as mentioned in #5 may not be realistic for most classes seeing that
majority of people have one goal which is to pass.
Although, like I said before,
these are reasonable concerns; anyone looking to take a MOOCs course should
expect a few things off of this list. Someone who is not digitally literate,
per se, should probably not be opting for such a course, but maybe the more
traditional setting. Someone else, on the other hand, like your more tech savvy student, should already be expecting these things and should have no problem moving along in a MOOCs course.
Do
you feel that these challenges are enough to stunt the growth of MOOCs? Do you
feel like these are reasonable concerns? Are there any other challenges that
you think such a massive online course could bring?
I feel that most people these days are computer literate at least. The next generation will be for sure. For that reason alone I think that MMOCs will only become more of the norm than the exception to the rule. If I can learn or be trained without having to physically go somewhere, I would prefer that 10 out of 10 times. I think that the concept of MOOCs will only continue to expand moving forward.
ReplyDeleteI agree I think the only people that are resisting MOOCs are students who need that constant meeting with a professor twice a week to stay on top of their studies and assignments, and professors teach those smaller classes and like to know all of their students. Other than that, I think we will see more MOOCs across the board
DeleteYou both make great points. I also think that some adults returning to school may have trouble at first maneuvering with such a course, because I know quite a few who aren't too computer literate. But ultimately I think it will be beneficial for them because today and as we advance, computer literacy will almost be unavoidable.
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