Massively Open How Massive Open Online Courses Changed the World

Lauren Nixon Western Oregon University

Chapter 6: Untangling from the Hype

With the climbing costs of tuition there is no wonder that the MOOC has become so popular.
To many, the MOOC is the answer to growing problems arising with higher education. It is a symbol of change, a change that is greatly needed in order to counteract the growing doubts of the value of higher education. MOOCs offer the possibility to gain a world-class education which was once only available to a select few admitted into Ivy League schools and had the funds to pay for it (Snyder, 2012). MOOCs may have started in the Ivy Leagues but now the majority of MOOCs are created by universities and even community colleges. Despite where the knowledge comes from, MOOCs offer this knowledge for free; open for anyone who has a desire to learn and an Internet connection. Although MOOCs provide this knowledge to the masses, this does not guarantee learning. Many debate the effectiveness of online learning and further research is needed to understand what quality of education is gained from an online format. The general format of MOOCs are short video lectures that have quiz questions embedded to check for understanding. Compared to the average college lecture this is not so different. These video lectures are still one-way, passive instructional models which only serve to duplicate a practice that is already in existence (Meyer, 2010). An advantage to the scattered quizzes is that students can assess their understanding before moving on, while in a lecture hall, this would not be an option. While the format is similar between face-to-face classrooms and MOOCs what is missing is the differentiation of instruction that is possible in a face-to-face environment. The U.S. department of Education found that, elements such as video or online quizzes do not appear to influence the amount that students learn in online classes(Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, Jones, 2012). Although students can watch videos at their own pace and even rewind to review something they do not understand, students also have the option to speed up videos, which can result in missing important information. While the quizzes are scattered throughout the lecture to monitor student understanding, there is no penalty for an incorrect answer, students can guess and check and move on without really grasping the important information. It is important not to forget that learning is a process, which needs a knowledgeable guide to help organize information, find connections and strengthen understanding in areas to make the whole more complete. Online education takes a route in which people have to work to construct knowledge and understanding, they do not have a guide to lead them, instead they have to plan,

organize, problem-solve, and find tools to help them (Kop, 2011). Learning online is an independent process that requires motivation, initiative, and confidence in order to succeed (Kop, 2011). Although there are those elite individuals who can teach themselves, if a learner does not have these skills they will have a hard time learning in this setting. Since MOOCs are massive, class sizes reaching into the thousands, this means that learning guides rely heavily on peers. While peer learning has its advantages, as Kirschner (2012) states, peer learning takes you only so far: at some point, somebody has to know something about the subject. With professors commonly only present in videos, students of MOOCs are often left with little to no guide to help them solve important questions. Dropout rates of MOOCs near 90%, a contributing factor to this is that the information progressed too quickly and became well over the average students head (Thrun, 2012). In a face-to-face classroom, students would have the opportunity to have questions cleared up from the professor, but in a MOOC, those questions can be lost or answered incorrectly and therefore the first sign of confusion often is not solved but built upon. Another important aspect of MOOCs are discussions in which students talk about the weeks information. In addition to the video lectures and quizzes, online discussions in which MOOC students can discuss open ended questions is a constructive way for students to process what they have learned and work with other students. Many studies have found that presence, what a person perceives as real, results in increased learner satisfaction with online courses and a greater depth of learning (Pallof, Pratt, 2007, p. 12). With synchronous communication, or chat rooms, that are built into a course, students can gain a greater sense of presence since they can share and read ideas with a group in real time. But these chat rooms can become noisy and random in normal sized classrooms, with MOOCs these discussions can be nothing less than chaotic. Since MOOCs are so large, supervision of discussions is limited. The openness of MOOCs also makes it vulnerable to inappropriate behavior especially since there are no financial risks (EDUCAUSE, 2011). Readiness levels of participants of MOOCs also have to be put into consideration. There are many variables for the kind of student entering into a MOOC including their educational background and motivation for entering to the class. Since MOOCs are open to the masses without any requirements, a large range of people and readiness levels can participate in the course. While even in the traditional classroom setting there is a range of readiness levels, compared to MOOCs the range is much narrower since many university courses have prerequisites. Also, since university classes have to be paid for, most students in the class are invested in learning the material. There are many questions that need to be answered about the quality of education that students gain from MOOCs. Close evaluations of MOOCs will need to identify if the MOOC can offer a world class education to class sizes that reach into the hundreds of thousands and if this is equal to the education gained from traditional classroom settings. There are important questions to consider when courses reach these massive sizes like are educators truly effective and can there truly be a reasonably accurate way to evaluate what a student has gained when there are so many variables? To spread knowledge is one thing, to gain knowledge takes more than a passive act, it is a journey that requires the help of a more knowledgeable guide or guides and a learner who is fully engaged in the process.

My Personal View on MOOCs

When I first read about MOOCs I was swept up in the idea that people from any corner of the world, from any educational or economy background could join a MOOC and learn, without cost or time burdens. As I read more, through my research, I quickly began to untangle from the initial excitement of the idea and began to see that what was once a wonderful idea is quickly turning into something that will possible lose the benefits it once had. The key benefit that I saw was that MOOCs provided free quality education to the masses, but from my research I see this not being the case in the future. As quickly at the MOOC came and made a name for itself, universities and community colleges looked at its success and wanted to find ways on how they could profit. While most MOOCs and their services are free now, I believe that this will change and could have a large effect on the range of people who can still participate. Whether or not MOOCs are free in the future, I believe that MOOCs will be continue to rise in popularity and become viable option for continued education both after high school and for job training. MOOCs make great use of current technologies making them interactive with social networking, they can meet multiple learning styles with videos and embedded quizzes, and they are convenient to our high paced society. Technology is something that is embedded in many peoples lives as a means for communication, their careers, entertainment, and selfexpression, so why not use it for education too? As technologies advance even more I see education leaning even more towards happening through technology. The challenge with MOOCs, at this time, is giving credit for completed courses. I think that for MOOC courses to gain credit they will have to fix problems with student identity, plagiarism, cheating, and how to grade a massive amount of assignments. I do believe that MOOCs can be a successful format for learning, but it does depend heavily on the students effort and commitment in the course as well as instructors assigning meaningful assignments that encourage deeper understanding. I believe that over time instructional practices will become more refined and there will be solutions to the problems that arise with MOOCs, although these solutions most likely will mean fees attached to courses.

Conclusion
Looking back from the beginning in which I learned that I would be joining my peers in writing a book about MOOCs to now I am thankful for the learning experiences I have gained. While at times I met with frustration in the research and writing process, once I learned how to solve the problems that were causing the frustration I saw how much I was learning from the process. I not only learned about what MOOCs are and their pros and cons at this time, I also learned how to write a book by helping to write a book, which is not an experience everyone gets. Having the support of my peers made the process enjoyable and a lot less intimidating. Reading the final product, I can see all of the hard work my peers put into this book and the end result is a direct reflection of that hard work.

Citations
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