What is the best and most productive way to teach? Many have different answers to this question. I would like to talk about the option of MOOCs. People have been debating about the efficiency of MOOCs for quite a while, which vary in optimistic and pessimistic ways. The question nevertheless remains: What is better? The traditional teaching methods or the time of modern technology? While being aware of many critical points of the MOOCs, I wanted to explore more of its positive sides by trying to experience this technology myself. For the rest of the post, I will state my personal experiences and opinions, based on a selected MOOC.
While looking for an interesting MOOC to analyse and take as an example for this blog-post, I came across the website OnlineCourseReport. Here I found a list of the apparently most popular MOOCs of all time (see http://www.onlinecoursereport.com/the-50-most-popular-moocs-of-all-time/). In order for me to evaluate the ideology of the MOOCs, I chose a topic which I am not familiar with, to see if it can catch my interest and to see how it will “educate” me. The MOOC that I chose was “Introduction to Mathematical Thinking”, lectured by Dr. Keith Devlin and created by the Stanford University. I chose the first lecture of mathematical thinking (https://www.coursera.org/learn/mathematical-thinking/lecture/QeAe0/lecture-1-introductory-material) Additional information can be found under this link: https://www.coursera.org/learn/mathematical-thinking. The experiences and thoughts that I had while watching this MOOC were the following:
The design of the website gave me the impression that it provided a clear overview with additional information if wanted. Being always available, I saw many advantages if this technology would be incorporate into educational systems, as I, and other users, could decide when and where to watch it. These elements of comfort also gave me a relaxed attitude, where I could follow the MOOC when I felt concentrated and could pause it when my focus was leaving me. I personally enjoyed the option of watching the video with subtitles, which provides lots of advantages in my opinion. I also found the lecturer in the video in a way entertaining, which encouraged me to later watch another one of his videos. When something was not clear to me, I could repeat the video at the required spot. Concerning my knowledge-gain, I would say it was modest. However, I see it would have been more productive, had the MOOC talked about a field I had been more familiar with, due to the background knowledge. I also need to mention, that I did catch myself falling into a typical “internet surfing” attitude while watching the video. By this, I mean that I lost my focus after a while, where I did continue to listen to the MOOC, but I was opening new internet sites and doing other things aside. This is the same attitude I have towards e.g. YouTube. I think if one can resist the “temptation” of reducing the MOOCs to mere videos, and see them as an (educational) aid, then I can see that this technology could help our education system in the modern age. I do see that this is a way of providing good and free education, which can be adapted by one’s personal taste. I would encourage people to give this new “e-learning” a chance, without “banishing” the regular learning program. It would be interesting to see if these two methods could co-exist in order to provide an open education, which would provide students to repeat and understand classes with complicated topics better, without losing the personal contact with the teachers. I do see that MOOCs are able to provide chances, despite them being far from perfect. Nevertheless, I do not wish to make a general statement, being aware of the multiple attitudes towards this technology, which I cannot solely represent with my short experience.
The design of the website gave me the impression that it provided a clear overview with additional information if wanted. Being always available, I saw many advantages if this technology would be incorporate into educational systems, as I, and other users, could decide when and where to watch it. These elements of comfort also gave me a relaxed attitude, where I could follow the MOOC when I felt concentrated and could pause it when my focus was leaving me. I personally enjoyed the option of watching the video with subtitles, which provides lots of advantages in my opinion. I also found the lecturer in the video in a way entertaining, which encouraged me to later watch another one of his videos. When something was not clear to me, I could repeat the video at the required spot. Concerning my knowledge-gain, I would say it was modest. However, I see it would have been more productive, had the MOOC talked about a field I had been more familiar with, due to the background knowledge. I also need to mention, that I did catch myself falling into a typical “internet surfing” attitude while watching the video. By this, I mean that I lost my focus after a while, where I did continue to listen to the MOOC, but I was opening new internet sites and doing other things aside. This is the same attitude I have towards e.g. YouTube. I think if one can resist the “temptation” of reducing the MOOCs to mere videos, and see them as an (educational) aid, then I can see that this technology could help our education system in the modern age. I do see that this is a way of providing good and free education, which can be adapted by one’s personal taste. I would encourage people to give this new “e-learning” a chance, without “banishing” the regular learning program. It would be interesting to see if these two methods could co-exist in order to provide an open education, which would provide students to repeat and understand classes with complicated topics better, without losing the personal contact with the teachers. I do see that MOOCs are able to provide chances, despite them being far from perfect. Nevertheless, I do not wish to make a general statement, being aware of the multiple attitudes towards this technology, which I cannot solely represent with my short experience.
Hey Alex, thanks for sharing your experience with it! I wonder why have you chosen mathematics? You write later that it was kind of difficult to evaluate the quality without having the corresponding background. Does this mean that the whole idea of any person stepping into the course and being immidietly included has failed? Let''s put it this way: what do you think was missing in this lecture that would really hold your attention?
ReplyDeleteWould you say that this MOOC is suitable for students who want to start studying Maths respectively who could be the target group for it?
DeleteHey! Yes I`ll gladly explain my motives for choosing a MOOC in mathematics. I see mathematics as something useful and wanted to enhance my knowledge about it. I was curious if I could achieve this in a fun way through a MOOC. The reason why I lost track so fast is because despite being an introduction video, the MOOC was talking about formulas and methods which were not explained enough in detail for an outsider like me to this field. So I do not see my attempt as a failure, but rather that the standard that I started off with was too high. If it had been an easier one, I`m quite sure it would have been easier.
Delete@ Harald. Like I just replied to Barashkova, I am sure that this MOOC would be helpful for students studying math and who are more knowledgeable than me in this field, because the author did design the lecture in a fun and entertaining way.
DeleteVery good beginning, always good to start a blog post with a question!
ReplyDeletehowever, since there is a set of questions in the beginning, you could have come back to them at the end of your post ;-)
DeleteI see teaching as a very individual approach, which cannot be generalized like in our current education system. My question ‘What is the best and most productive way to teach?’ is merely a stimulus for raising individual opinions. I therefore did not ‘answer’ the question in that sense, because just I wanted to state my own opinion. I also see that opinions can be nourished by reading about other people’s and see what one agrees on and with what one does not.
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