MOOCHOW MOOC WORKS AND CONNECTS

STUDENTS.

This presentation on the topic of moocs is an inspiration and collection of facts from different scholars who have taken a critical look to analyze and study how moocs came in to eixtance, how it function and their importance in the society.

CONTENT.

What is mooc?

The birth of open learning.

Brief history of moocs.

Characteristics of moocs.

Types of moocs.

Benefits and downsides of moocs.

Discussion.

What is mooc?

MOOC is an acronym for;

M= Massive

O= Open

O= Online

C= Course

What is moocs cont…

Mooc is a Massive Open Online Course. It is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user fora that help build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs). MOOCs are a recent development in distance education(Mzwandile helper mashinini )

What is moocs cont…

Although early MOOCs often emphasized open access

features, such as connectives and open licensing of content,

structure, and learning goals, to promote the reuse and

remixing of resources, some notable newer MOOCs use

closed licenses for their course materials, while maintaining

free access for students.

The birth of online learning.

The birth of online learning cont…

Moocs all started in 2008 but three years ago, the modern massive open online course, or

MOOC, came to prominence when a Stanford computer-science professor named Sebastian

Thrun made his artificial-intelligence course freely available to anyone with an Internet

connection and 150,000 people signed up. Mooc allows students the chance of tuning into

courses from universities like M.I.T., Harvard, Berkeley and many others. Coursera, the

platform established by a couple of Stanford computer-science professors, Andrew Ng and

Daphne Koller, has more than 400 courses in seven languages from 87 academic partners

and some 4.7 million students. EdX, the nonprofit platform established by M.I.T. and Harvard,

has 68 courses from 28 academic partners and 1.25 million students. These are just two of

the platforms out there.

The birth of online learning cont…

MOOCs began with offerings heavily weighted toward computer science and math edX’s most

popular remain a pair of introductory computer-science courses from Harvard and M.I.T. but

classes now cover everything from finance and law to poetry and music. Higher education is a

sector that has this far been embraced but arguably has not been fundamentally altered by the

growth of the Internet. This has been rapidly changing over the last few years with the rise of

MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses; the way of learning that allows students to participate

on their own terms via the Internet. MOOCs have been embraced in a big way by elite universities

and institutions, and are beginning to have a major impact on higher education.

Brief history of moocs.

The evolution of technology and of new learning experiences have

always been closely related. As distance learning specialists affirm, the

field of distance-learning had three main generations which are;

Correspondence study, Multimedia and Computer-mediated.

( Mkhonza,M.L)

Brief history of moocs cont…

The first of these distance learning models grew exponentially in Europe and

United States after the Industrial Revolution, especially because a more

qualified work force was needed for the factories. In addition, postal services

were becoming faster, cheaper and more reliable. For example, in the 19th

century, students from Australia were already able take correspondence

courses from prestigious universities, such as the London School of

Economics, one of the first in the United Kingdom to offer distance

education.

Brief history of moocs cont…

However, this first generation was still far from reaching massive numbers of students like

MOOCs are doing today. Correspondence study only predominated until the arrival of

electronic media, which lead to popularization of radio and television as educational tools in

the 20th century. Teachers and learners from all parts of the world took advantage of the

new technology. Those who did not have access to formal learning could watch or listen to

classes for free, wherever they were. The content was adapted to reach different types of

audiences, and even students in remote areas could have knowledge in academic subjects.

Brief history of moocs cont…

But a main pedagogical factor was still lacking: students had hardly any interaction with

professors or other students. Videotape was used by many distance learning initiatives but

was criticized because of its passivity. The multimedia generation had popularized distance

learning and allowed new possibilities, but only computers and the web could unite forces to

provide a new e-learning infrastructure, mainly built upon networks and communities on-line.

Moocs is an open education movement with an open content and knowledge where by,

leaning is successful if we connect and build relevant networks. Consecutiveness and

connective courses started running in 2008.In 2012, Stanford devised an artificial

intelligence tool, learning machine and a database and the platforms were courser and

udacity.

Characteristics of moocs.

1. Moocs is free of charge to all the people interested.

2. It has no participation limitations.

3. There is no formal entry requirement.

4. The virtual learning environment is not the Centre of

the course.

5. It uses a variety of new social networks and tools like

slide shares, google, future learning, class2Go, OER

University and many others.

6. It is a community of practice and sharing where all

the participants are involved in the topic at hand.

Types of moocs.

We have three main types of moocs which are;

network based, content based and task based moocs

according to Stephen Downes. Each type of MOOC

has all three elements (networks, tasks and content),

but each has a goal that is dominant.

Types of moocs cont…

Network-based MOOCs are the original MOOCs, taught by Alec

Couros, George Siemens, Stephen Downes, Dave Cormier. The goal is

not so much content and skills acquisition, but conversation, socially

constructed knowledge, and exposure to the milieu of learning on the

open web using distributed means. The pedagogy of network-based

MOOCs is based in connectivist or connectivist-style methods.

Resources are provided, but exploration is more important than any

particular content. Traditional assessment is difficult.

Types of moocs cont…

Task-based MOOCs emphasize skills in the sense that they ask the learner to complete

certain types of work. In Jim Groom’s ds106 at UMW, the learning is distributed and the

formats variable. There are many options for completing each assignment, but a certain

number and variety of assignments need to be done to perform the skills. Similarly, our POT

Certificate Class focuses on different topics for each week, and skills are demonstrated

through sections on design, audio, video etc. in an effort to expose learners to many different

formats and styles in online teaching. Community is crucial, particularly for examples and

assistance, but it is a secondary goal. Pedagogy of task-based MOOCs tend to be a mix of

instructivism and constructivism. Traditional assessment is difficult here too.

Types of moocs cont…

Content-based MOOCs are the ones with huge enrollments, commercial

prospects, big university professors, automated testing, and exposure in

the popular press. Community is difficult but may be highly significant to the

participants, or one can go it alone. Content acquisition is more important in

these classes than either networking or task completion, and they tend to

use instructivist pedagogy. Traditional assessment, both formative and

summative, may be emphasized. Mass participation seems to imply mass

processing.

Benefits and downsides of moocs.

Benefits of moocs.

You can be able to organize a mooc in any setting without

connectivity.

You can use your own devices.

You do not need a degree to enter.

You can connect across disciplines and institutions.

It enables you to work across time zones and boundaries.

You can use any online tools that are relevant.

It helps improve ones longlife learning skills.

Downsides of a mooc.

It demands digital literacy.

It requires self-directed learning ability.

It requires more time and effort that

expected.

It could lead to a feeling of chaos.

It requires steep learning curves.

The technology involved could lead to

distraction from the learning purpose and

content.

Hot issues in moocs

Some of the hot issues in moocs

are privacy, openness,

completion, impact, pedagogy,

business model and certification.

Discussion.

Some of the fields of mooc that I

will be interested in are;

Psychology of Perception, clinical

psychology of child and young

and Social Cognition.

Neuroscience and Behavior, Research and Data Analysis

in Psychology, life skills issues, how people think and what

makes them come to given conclusions or decisions as

well as problems and challenges faced by the youth in the

society and how they over come such situations and move

on with their leaves.

In this mooc I will be studying the various methods used in psychology to carry out

researches, how humans think and why they think in given ways when faced to certain

situations . Besides, I will also have to study the health facts and developmental

phases in children and youths.

More so, I will study human behavior in the society and how people inter act and

behave in their societies. Further more, in this field and topics I will also have to study

how the human brain functions.

REFERENCES.

Asma,A. The history of moocs. http://www.slideshare.net/Lwazoluhle/history-of-moocs-31842915?qid=c812d59e-9342-49d1-a162-d6891a9b85d8&v=qf1&b=&from_search=2. Accesses 04/03/2014.

Mzwandile,H.M. what is mooc. http://www.slideshare.net/g6mzwai/what-are-moocs-by-mzwandile-mashinini, Accesses 04/03/2014.

END