UNIT 1: Getting to Know about MOOCs

Lesson 1: Meaning & Features

Aim: Participants will be able to define meaning and features of MOOCs.

One of the alternatives for learning outside the campus is learning through distance education (Larreamendy-Joerns & Leinhardt, 2006), with having various positive aspects: 1) vivid visualization; 2) active participation in virtual learning community; 3) feedbacks and comments from peers or instructors; and 4) reasonable price for taking courses (Drachsler, H., & Kalz, M., 2016; Larreamendy-Joerns & Leinhardt, 2006). MOOCs, which means Massive Open Online Courses, is regarded as one of the most prominent formats of distance learning currently. It has been over a decade since the advent of open coursewares. After then, MOOCs have been recently popular as the form of distant learning since the course, Artificial Intelligence, by Stanford University in 2011 (Hockly, 2013; Krause, S., & Lowe, C., 2014). Since then, various MOOCs channels have been created such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX. Furthermore, the more traditional way of xMOOCs, which provide learners with one-way lecture videos, is getting transferred to more interactive form, cMOOCs (connectivist-oriented MOOCs) (Hockly, 2013).

_{The image on the right was retrieved from https://www.clarity-innovations.com/blog/lfisher/move-moocs}

• Have you ever heard about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)? Or, have you ever taken some courses of the MOOCs? Although you have never taken MOOCs courses, you may have taken other online or distance lectures or even learned new information from the web. The following video and article tell us the key features of MOOCs. MOOC provides learners with a virtual community to take online courses, and pursues a teaching method which is different from the traditional style by offering multimedia- and web-based course content and advanced interactivity among learners.

To learn about MOOC, please watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_N_NHbC80E

• Also, please read an article of Nicky Hockly, which discusses five things about MOOCs.

http://www.academia.edu/29733171/5_Things_you_always_wanted_to_know_about..._MOOCs

→ After watching the given video and reading the article, you will share what you learned about the significant features of MOOC with other participants. Please click the following link to write down your name and fill the “Characteristics of MOOC” only: https://goo.gl/HoSXz3

Lesson 2: Further Features & Implications

Aim: Participants will be able to define further features and implications of MOOCs and Coursera, one of the MOOCs.

Other key benefits of taking MOOCs are related to efficient time management. Learners do not necessarily have to attend the class in person. Instead, they are able to take the courses even at home or any other places they want. In this sense, people at a wide range of age are taking MOOCs for the professional purposes or academic purposes (Whiter, Schiorring, and James, 2014). Most of the MOOCs are delivered in English and taken by people who use English as a second language. MOOCs learners learn diverse disciplines through video lectures, educational materials, formative assessments, quizzes, and so forth. Even interactivities among the learners are encouraged through the online discussion forums (Buendgens-Kosten, 2015; Chung, 2015; Erwen and Wenning, 2017; Whiter, Schiorring, and James, 2014). Learners can choose preferred MOOCs platforms according to their needs and learning styles.

• MOOCs such as Coursera, Udacity, edX, Khan Academy have changed the traditional class. Please watch this video to listen to what the founders of the MOOCs say, to see how people take the courses, and to learn about advantages and disadvantages of MOOCs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ8vBNQbem0

• For an additional story about Coursera, you can also watch a talk of Dr. Daphne Koller, who developed Coursera with Dr. Andrew Ng in 2012 in the hope of sharing knowledge with people around the world. Please watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FvJ6jMGHU

→ Most of the MOOCs target learners in higher education. Many prestigious worldwide universities participate in the movement of opening their courses on the MOOCs platforms. Now, they are letting a huge number of people all over the world take their classes even distantly.

After watching the given additional video clips, what did you further learn about MOOCs? Please go back to the table and add more about what you learned further in “Characteristics of MOOC”. Also, fill the “How will be the characteristics of MOOC beneficial for your teaching?” for your possible adaptation of MOOC: https://goo.gl/HoSXz3

Next, go to UNIT 2: Pre-assessments & Course Search