May 8, 2017

Experiencing MOOCs and Open Education

   
 Future learn a digital education platform founded in December 2012. It offers a big range of courses, depending of your interest. It is a massive open online course (MOOC) learning platform, and as of January 2017 included 109 UK and international partners, including non-university partners. It offers courses in the different languages, English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Chinese, what is a really good benefit for learning. Future Learn was launched with 12 university partners, seeking those who "consistently rank at the top end of the…league tables. The 12 founding partners are: The Open University, University of Birmingham, University of Bristol, Cardiff University, University of East Anglia, University of Exeter, King's College London, Lancaster University, University of Leeds, University of Southampton, St Andrews University, and University of Warwick.


    When it is about my experience with  MOOCs, I really didn’t have so much, but when it’s experience about  Future Learn, it was really good. I choosed the lecture about literature, in the link below and I really found some interesting things/information. What I think really worth is about Future Learn or another platforms for learning online, ist that you can have access to the articles, videos and discussions. In general, when speaking about a MOOCs and its benefits, it can be freely said that it’s really good solution for learning without a buying a whole bunch of books on that topic, or to sit comfortable in your home and learn. It’s so to say, ‘modern style’ for learning , as the opposite of classical style. What is the great benefit of the MOOCs and for example of Future Learn, or Edx or Coursera, is that the most of this courses are free, except when you want a certificate and you have to pay for that. The only thing you should do to have access is to sign in/sign up. So, all in all you can learn a lot of new  things,  learn about some interesting experiences and all that for free.  On the other hand, it might be overrated, because I lot of people are speaking only about benefits and good sides, or maybe  they are forgetting  the ‘old way’ of learning. It’s crucial to understand, that today in the age of technology, it is sure practical and has a benefits for providers, this ‘online learning’. But, it is maybe a overrated because there is no real touch with learning, in the way of developing social possibilities in the ‘real society’ and in the range of ‘real people’. However, moocs can improve education in lot of certain ways, I mentioned above some of the ways, but in my opinion, certain way is that the moocs can improve your skills to communicate online and to be capable to learn without going to real schools. And that I find really magnificent,because the real schools aren’t always institutions with the knowledge or they don’t always (oft)mean that somebody knows something. Other way in which MOOCs can improve education is that you can have a peek and access to the most prestigious universities in the world, online, without a muss to pay scholarship, to go there, etc. That’s the however a great thing about MOOCs, because a lot of people don’t have such a possibility to go there and to study, but they have interest for some things and some disciplines.

Source: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/shakespeare-and-his-world 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKPDkyYsBuE 



4 comments:

  1. Hey Merisa,

    great post! But I do not fully get what you meant with "real touch with learning" and "developing social possibilites in 'real society'".
    However, I absolutely agree with you that MOOCs do have both up- and downsides, but that in an ideal world the upsides would proably outweigh the downsides! :)

    Happy (life-long) learning!

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  2. Hello Merisa hello previous Anonymous,

    i also enjoyed reading about your experience but I am slightly irritated by your interpretation of MOOCs offering "access to the most prestigious universities". As I see the MOOCs of these very universities can also be interpreted as replicating their authority. I agree that some of their MOOCs are great but I am missing a bit of reflection on these ambiguities.

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    Replies
    1. So this is an interesting topic: why are universities participating in MOOCs or setting up their own MOOCs? Is it just a strategy of outreach or broadening or "replicating" their authority? Is it just part of their "third mission" in society as publicly funded entity? What about the potential of MOOCs for knowledge transfer e.g. MOOCs about institutions' research agenda or topics beyond the typical curricula?

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