When twoStanfordprofessors decided to bid their artificial intelligence ( AI ) course online , for free , to anyone interested in drive it , they ’d expected a few thousand students , top . But by the start of the class , they had 160,000 enroll [ source : Morrison ] .
That was in 2011 . The professors were experimenting with a fair new course format called themassive unresolved on-line class , orMOOC(think " mook " for easier meter reading ) . Since then , dozens of universities , including some of the most prestigious and expensive in the human beings , have launched their own MOOCs . Anyone with net admittance can take Fundamentals of Neuroscience fromHarvard , Intro to English Composition from Duke , Circuits and Electronics fromMITand Constitutional Struggle in the Muslim World from University of Copenhagen , all for the low - low cost of nothing [ source : Coursera ] !
And all for no college recognition , although various for - credit models are on the lottery board [ source : Masterson ] .
The classes typically ladder from about four to 12 weeks . Most MOOCs are introductory classes you ’d take early in a college life history , though some high - level subjects are available , catering to students who already have some college background or degrees and are looking to continue their Department of Education or add a novel entrance to their resume [ source : Marques , Pozniak ] .
It ’s easy to dismiss the new format as a remaking . OpenYale and iTunesU already offer complimentary online lecture . Some college offer free e - textbooks and coursework through those type of " overt acquisition " platform [ germ : trade name ] . Really , if you position the monetary value - free affair away , it seems like we ’ve had alike opportunity for yr – people have long earned actual college credit and completed degrees online .
MOOCs are lawfully different , though , at least in theory . You take a traditional on-line line , make it free , zilch a lot of the preconceived social structure , and oh , right – have your classmates grade your work . The remainder is a collaborative , popularise approaching to learning ground on a hypothesis calledconnectivism .
In Theory: The MOOC Ideal
Back in 2008 , two Canadian educators , Stephen Downes and George Siemens , start the MOOC cause . Their course , offered through the University of Manitoba , was something of an experiment . The intent was to demonstrate connectivism , a learning theory Siemens had develop . The class was forebode Connectivism and Connectivist Learning , and 2,200 student contract up [ source : Morrison ] . The core of connectivist theory goes like this : In the digital age , learning happens most effectively in networks . It is , Siemens say , exponentially increase by the enactment , and the art , of collaboration .
In other words , sharing , growing , and forming connections between seemingly disparate information through a meshwork acquire gravid understanding than use up it from a undivided , finite source . Learning by consumption is still , which today means it might be uncompleted , or savourless - out amiss , by the prison term the speech ends or the record strike the shelves .
Learning by collaboration , on the other hand , has no end . In a MOOC , sources of knowledge are endless . Education movement in all direction – between instructors and bookman and especially between students and student , base an environment in which understanding continually extend and evolves .
MOOCs found on that germinal framework flooded e - learning political program in 2012 , created by individual teacher , subject experts , grooming organisation and university [ source : Marques ] . A 2013Princetoncourse call Networks Illustrated is a upright example of a university - extend MOOC , which some would now call an xMOOC . allow ’s check that one out .
In Practice: The MOOC Experience
Every MOOC is unlike , but the " Networks Illustrated : principle without Calculus " course offered by Princeton is pretty representative of the university rendering . It is a six - workweek , not - for - acknowledgment trend offering free , unlimited enrolment without requirement noesis , using student - to - student and instructor - to - student fundamental interaction models , and mostly automatize feedback on coursework [ sources : Coursera , Brinton ] . While the track itself is devoid , the suggest reading for the path is not ; students who need to record the recommend book have to buy it .
Christopher Brinton , a Princeton Ph.D. nominee ( in 2013 ) inelectrical engineering(EE ) , and Princeton EE professor Mung Chiang teach the course of instruction mainly via prerecorded telecasting lectures , which is the norm . They demonstrate two one - hour lectures per week , with multiple - choice , insistent - feedback quiz interspersed throughout to try out comprehension . instructor answer students ' questions regularly via meeting place and from time to time in resilient chat sessions , or " virtual office hours " [ source : Brinton ] .
Coursework is gauge to take six to eight hours per week , with hebdomadal homework assignments and midterm and last exams . All are multiple - option , machine - graded , and provide insistent feedback and explanations . With no authentic supervision to preclude cheating , Princeton does not proffer course credit , a final grade or a certificate of completion . Since this fussy course is not job - acquisition oriented , " I find it absorbing that still around 100,000 students have enter … in the first class , " says Brinton .
This is a usual framework , but it ’s not universal . The pre - calculus algebra course extend by Ball State University include peer assessment of coursework [ source : Canvas ] . The not - for - profit organization Open Security Training ’s MOOC on rootkits is self - pace , mean anyone can start and finish the course at any clip . That class has recommended ( but not required ) prerequisite cognition Qaeda ; all suggest path materials are costless [ reservoir : MOOC List ] .
North Carolina ( NC ) State University put up an " upgrade " option for its MOOC course Digital ASIC Design that prepare it potential to receive college credit . Upon completion with a class of 80 or above , a bookman can enroll in NC State as a non - degree - seek educatee , successfully fill out a few additional , proctored and/or homo - grade assignment , and receive full credit for the class [ source : MOOC List ] .
The number of students taking vantage of all these MOOCs is in the millions [ source : Allard ] . Only about 10 percent finish the line , though – and , depending on who you ask , that ’s not necessarily a bad thing [ root : Simonite ] .
The xMOOC Revolution
Only 1 in 10 students who register for a MOOC completes it . This may be because many students inscribe in the trend without intending to stop it ; they simply want approach to the information provided , treat the MOOC as a continually evolving , interactive textbook [ source : Simonite ] .
Other " dip - outs , " though , may mean to complete the trend but fail . Varying floor of technological know - how are partially to blame , but growing pains in the encyclopedism data formatting put up importantly [ source : Simonite ] . " It ’s difficult to jibe the educatee mesh [ of a ] expression - to - cheek setting , " Brinton admits . " Techniques we have experimented with such as virtual office hour seem to help mitigate this , at least to some extent . "
The connectivist ideal is n’t lost , but it is water down . For case , many MOOCs are not as educatee - draw and participatory as connectivism envisions . match - scaling is relatively uncommon . Classes are more integrated . Course materials may not be destitute . And in self - pace MOOCs , where the " peer group " is perpetually changing as new educatee sign up and others speed up up or slow down , match - centered erudition can suffer [ rootage : Morrison ] .
recollect , monumental open on-line coursesare still in their infancy . Brinton describes them as " an on-going experimentation from which we are now witnessing the initial results . " MOOC designers will need to turn to the obvious shortcomings if the format is to be the revolutionary measure in educational activity some predict . Luckily , the format itself allows for a level of student feedback never before available in the education realm : investigator can see every keystroke , ever click - through and every time a student fast - forward through or abandons avideo lecture(which large act of pupil do ) , and then prove fitting at will [ source : Simonite ] .
The rapid , outside growth in MOOC offerings and the students expressing interest in them seems to announce real change in how the globe learns [ reference : Amara ] . The nature of that change , however , is the reservoir of vivid public debate .
MOOCs and the Future of Learning
In 2013 , five MOOCs won cite recommendations from the American Council on Education , the same organisation that send word colleges on how to dispense with in high spirits school AP acknowledgment . college do n’t have to consent those MOOCs forcredit , but now it ’s easier for them to do so if they require to . The MOOC platform Coursera is explore ways to offer in - person , proctored add - ons for students who want to gain affirm certification of completion , similar to the style NC State ’s ASIC design course do by crediting [ source : Young ] .
The trend toward MOOC legitimacy in higher education raise questions about where that teaching is headed . Supporters believe the format could show in an era of affordable , in high spirits - quality educational activity for everyone ( with Internet access ) who wants one , opening doors to college and life history advancement for those who ca n’t yield to drop a hundred grand or so on the four - twelvemonth residential modelling [ source : Masterson , Marques ] .
Chris Brinton sees teacher benefit , too . " It satiates my appetite for teaching , " says the Princeton teacher , " while allowing me to face an interview of unprecedented size and widespread demographics . "
Yet most in the higher - education field , including Brinton , concord that the dependable learning models incorporate significant teacher - student contact , andcollegessimply ca n’t allow the number of teacher necessary for that variety of tangency in a MOOC stratum of 100,000 [ source : Caplan ] .
Writing assignment , too , set ill into the current example . Despite a controversial edX - developed program that grades essay using AI and horrifies English teachers everywhere , they ’re only very rarely assigned , so it ’s unreadable how written material power will fare in a MOOC revolution [ sources : Caplan , Marques , Knight ] .
And then , there is the survival of academia itself : Will universities dump their science department , and the inquiry that become with them , in favour of the lower - price MOOC mannequin , sending students online for intro purgative rather than paying to seat thousands of scholarly person in lecturing G. Stanley Hall with live professor ? Or maybe school will drop the zero - price portion of the data format in favor of keep their aperient departments . Coursera already plans for its potential certificate programme to be fee - based [ source : Young ] .
Christopher Brinton , for one , is optimistic . " It will take us many more twelvemonth of trial and melioration before we get MOOCs right . But as substantive as the challenges are , [ even greater ] are the chance MOOCs present to redefine the boundaries of education for the future . "
So , we expect and see . In the meantime , you or I or my 3 - yr - older can take Princeton ’s Networks Illustrated , Stanford ’s Artificial Intelligence , and Harvard ’s Intro Neuroscience because they sound kind of cool .
Lots More Information
About midway through writing about Massive Open Online Courses , I pick up a tale on NPR about a Google spare-time activity to bring wireless Internet to the most distant corners of the globe via atomic number 2 balloons . In this linguistic context , MOOC could be spirit - changing education formatting . masses in rural and/or poverty - stricken regions who do n’t presently have access to the Internet , let alone high education , rent alone mellow education through the world ’s most prestigious universities , may suddenly have the probability to obtain all three . It all count , I suppose , on how those helium balloon perform in examination , which is already underway in 2013 .
