This is a short advertisement by FutureLearn which I found somewhat interesting because it reminded me of some of the concepts I am keeping in mind during the micro-ethnography, such as the nationality of different online participants and the use of language. Although the video uses different accents from different national languages, this is something that is lost in an online community.
MOOCs Are Global. So Where Do They Stand With New European Privacy Laws?
How have GPDR (General Data Protection Regulations) limited the use of data used by MOOCs? Legal institutions are fighting for limitations and considerations of individual data and how it is used but are people taking MOOCs even bothered. An interesting read and follow-up to ethical guidelines when conducting ethnographies.
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CLOUD AND MOOCS: THE SERVITIZATION OF IT AND EDUCATION
This is a paper that brought to mind some of the concepts mentioned in Lister (2009), especially the use of sustaining and disruptive innovation described in pages 5 and 6. It also sheds some light on the powers behind MOOCs and poses the interesting question of whether MOOCs were created because students needed them or, on the other hand, if it was a commercial plan by certain companies to make money.
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MOOCs to university: a consumer goal and marketing perspective
This look at the way completion of a MOOC can be used to motivate learners to take on a university program. This is a journal (Journal of Marketing) publication which studies MOOCs from a consumer goal perspective, hypothesizing that people who finish a MOOC are more likely to start and finish a university program especially if there is a powerful enough link between the learning and delivery pattern. A goal achieved by completing a MOOC leads to an interest in setting up another goal which is the university course.
This approach is different from blended learning which makes use of both online and offline modes of higher education learning at the same time. Rather it uses the idea of a cheaper and more widely available service to narrow down contenders for, perhaps, university courses requiring more commitment or which have more rigid structures.
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Moocs: students in the global south are wary of a ‘sage on the stage’
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It may come as a bit of a surprise that the range of MOOCs and opportunities they offer are still far from catering to the needs of certain communities. This seems to be the case with emerging communities that do not always have the resources or the infrastructure to allow open access to online courses and so see MOOCs as a form of blended learning.
Even if a course is free, language, learning design, learner support, quality, authenticity, accreditation, institutional appropriateness and cultural relevance can all exclude students.
(Charlotte Gunawardena, 2014)
A similar study conducted in 2014 corroborates this evidence. The UNESCO guidelines to policy-makers in developing countries do offer some suggestions as to how MOOCs can benefit economically developing areas, yet they are still aware of their limitations.
In some quarters it is argued that MOOCs are not optimally inclusive and accessible to a wide and diverse range of citizens. Consequently, they cannot and must not be seen as the only solution for making quality education accessible to all, or for addressing other social challenges.
(Mariana Patru and Venkataraman Balaj, 2016)
It would be interesting to see how MOOCs have developed over the last four years to satisfy the needs of these communities.
References:
Gunawardena, C., (2014) Moocs: students in the global south are wary of a ‘sage on the stage’. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/19/cost-barrier-students-global-south#comments. (Accessed: 15th February 2020).
Patru, M. and Balaji, V. (2016). MOOCs A Guide for Policy-Makers in Developing Countries. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000245122. (Accessed 16th February 2020)
The impact and reach of MOOCs: A developing countries’ perspective. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282017429_The_impact_and_reach_of_MOOCs_A_developing_countries’_perspective. (Accessed: 16th February 2020).
How are MOOCs developing and which are the major MOOC players? Is the future of MOOCs into micro-credentials and degrees towards more employment? https://t.co/tn3rPgX6df #mscedc
The price of MOOCs or the accessibility to MOOCs for free was perhaps an ideal that cannot be sustained in the long term, or perhaps it was never the idea of having something that was free for all.
A number of MOOCs I visited this week did offer free content and material but certificates came at a price, If MOOCs are intended to generate workforce potential, especially in developing countries, then the concept of being free needs to be sustained even more.
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The future of online testing and assessment: question quality in MOOCs
This paper takes a look at how certain features of MOOCs need to be mainstreamed to attract different types of learners, including assessment, methodologies and exercises.
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Liked on YouTube: Welcome to the Brave New World of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) | The New York Times
A look at the development of one of the largest MOOC platforms: Coursera and some of the limitations.
Welcome to the Brave New World of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) | The New York Times
More top colleges are offering free massive open online courses, but companies and universities still need to figure out a way to monetize them.
Related article: http://nyti.ms/UQdyvA
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Welcome to the Brave New World of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
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Week 4- Reflections on MOOCs
The development of MOOCs has been somewhat criticised for a number of reasons, for lack of a ‘real instructor’ or for the considerable amount of drop-outs. Perhaps the lack of human contact or the possibility of taking on a course far from an institution does affect the way education is perceived as was discussed in a number of articles posted this week. Is ‘openness’ as observed by Knox (2013) really a liberatory concept or do online learners still feel the need for an institution behind their learning?
In the course of this week, I came to wonder how far MOOCs can be seen as another form of ‘cultural commodity’ (Lister, 2009). Most MOOCs make use of videos, audio and other media which could fall well into the model described by Lister whereby production is focused on the creation of services for profit. This might determine who studies for ‘free’ for personal satisfaction and who pays for a certificate in order to improve the chances of a better career.
I also tried to determine what economic models MOOCs follow. Do they encourage ‘free’ learning to advertise high numbers of those taking on a particular course or is there some other form of discreet advertising going on? O’Reilly (cited in Lister, 2009) predicted that development in Web2.0 would not follow the path of manufacturing better hardware but by an increase in the provision of paid data or data that can be acquired according to need. We might already be paying for that free course by leaving data trails whenever we access the course platform and other companies may already be paying for that data to enhance their online courses.
And now to the micro-ethnography…
References:
Lister, Martin … [et al.], (2009) “Chapter 3. Networks, users and economics” from Martin Lister … [et al.], New media: a critical introduction pp.163-236, London: Routledge
Knox, J., (2013). Five critiques of the open educational resources movement. Teaching in higher education, 18(8), pp.821-823.
Who’s Benefiting from MOOCs, and Why
This survey sheds some light on who benefits most from MOOCs. Conducted in 2014, it does support the impression that many of those who start a MOOC do not finish it, yet this has to be taken in the light of the many users who decide to participate (which is still high).
MOOCs seem to benefit more those seeking to improve their career as opposed to those choosing a MOOC for their own education. It is interesting though to study how career benefits are reported almost across all the socioeconomic spectrum in one form or another. The same goes for educational benefits.
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