While sifting
through the rapidly expanding list of MOOC offerings that are available, I
elected to participate this semester as part of my AHE 602 course in a MOOC entitled
“The Ancient Greek Hero”. This course
was offered through EdX and taught by Gregory Nagi, a professor at Harvard
University. The course offered students an
opportunity to explore ancient Greek culture and history. I selected this course for two reasons:
first, I have a natural interest in history and have a background as a history teacher;
secondly, I can now say that I have taken Harvard coursework! Although I cannot
say that I have actually finished Harvard coursework, I must point out that I share
this in common with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. So, I do fully expect tremendous success in
my near future. This particular course
had a start date in mid-September, and the only completion date for the course
is for those students who want a certificate of completion. In order to earn this certificate a student
must complete all of the self-assessments with an average of 50% or higher by
the end of 2013.
In regards to the pedagogical structure of this particular
course, it could be characterized as an xMOOC due to the highly teacher
centered approach to learning (Caulfield, 2013) that it employed. The course was self-paced, and students could
join or drop the class at any point, a fact that I found this to be
disconcerting. I prefer courses that are
more linear in structure, and I did not like that after I had participated in
some of the earlier discussion opportunities, new students would join the class
and start at the beginning. I felt
pulled to continue discussions from the beginning of the course when I really
wanted to focus on later content. The
course material was divided into 24 units which were labeled as hours. Each unit contained a series of video
lectures and presentations and assigned readings that were followed by self-administered
quizzes and discussion boards. The vast
majority of learning exercises were centralized around the instructor as the disseminator
of knowledge, a concept that Sharma (2013) states is problematic. The only connectivist learning experiences
provided in this MOOC were the optional discussion boards associated with each
unit.
In my opinion, this course failed to offer the quality
learning experience that I was hoping for.
The lack of online pedagogical consideration given to this course was
obvious. I attribute the lack of overall
effectiveness of this course not to the lack of the professor’s expertise,
because Dr. Nagi is brilliant, but to the limitations of the xMOOC structure. Caulfield (2013) stated that xMOOCs are often
cited as lacking in the ability to foster a robust learning community, and
through my experience with this course, I would whole-heartily agree. I will admit that I entered this course with
really high expectations in regards to the learning experience that I would encounter,
and sadly, as I write this review, I must admit that I am disappointed with the
course as a whole. Although I could
envision this type of learning experience serving as a great resource for those
individuals lacking the opportunity to learn in the traditional college model (Sharma,
2013), I fail to see how this method could be viewed as superior to any of the
college level instruction I received during my academic career. I certainly feel that greater learning
experiences could be had through the traditional classroom model at many of the
Universities and Colleges across the globe.
In addition, as Salerno (2013) points out, MOOCs have a fatal flaw in
that they do not offer credentials for completed coursework, which I found to
be true in my course. The certification of completion in my opinion is not
enough to entice students to finish MOOC coursework. Without these external sources of motivation
(college degrees or certifications), I found it difficult to continuously put
forth the effort needed to complete the self-paced work. Finally, the feeling of isolation that I
experienced as a student in this course robed me of any sense of community,
which is an important part of successful learning environments. As the student, I would question why anyone
would really choose to participate in this course, if more traditional
approaches were available.
Some experts have hailed MOOCs as the harbinger of
revolution (Friedman, 2012), capable of bringing a “tsunami of change in higher
education” Kolowich (2013), and who knows, maybe they will be. But from this singular experience, I have a
hard time envisioning that ever occurring in its current state. It is quite possible that the particular MOOC
in which I participated is a poor example of the power of MOOCs, or that cMOOCs
provide better learning experiences, but there is very little from what I
experienced in this course that would leave me to believe that the MOOC
phenomenon will become a serious competitor in the higher education
market.
References
Caulfield,
M. (2013, July 11). xmooc communities should learn from cmoocs.
Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/blogs/mcaulfield/xmooc-communities-should-learn-cmoocs
Kolowich,
S. (2013, August 8). The mooc 'revolution' may not be as disruptive as some
had imagined. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/MOOCs-May-Not-Be-So-Disruptive/140965/
Salerno,
C. (2012, August 9). Bitter reality of mooconomics. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/08/09/real-economics-massive-online-courses-essay
Sharma,
S. (2013, July 15). A mooc delusion: Why visions to educate the world are
absurd. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/a-mooc-delusion-why-visions-to-educate-the-world-are-absurd/32599
