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Week 5: The needs of online communities.

The posts over week 5 have hopefully been proof of the different needs associated with online communities in an effort to determine what aspects I should concentrate on in the micro-ethnography.

Mark Wills’ view that online community encourage communities that are essentially neutral in the embodiment of genderless, ageless and classless notions may perhaps be counterargued by the last few posts for this week which show an inherent need for MOOCs to suit the needs of different types of communities. Being neutral and anonymous might have been a common practice in the first online communities but nowadays online participants seem to feel the need to show who they are and where they come from. This has also been evident in a short investigation of my MOOC which has shown that few people use pseudonyms any more.

This week has also been about the economics of MOOCs. In one of the articles, a major MOOC platform representative of Coursera states that:

At Coursera, we don’t really see ourselves as a MOOC provider, we look at ourselves as a three-sided platform that’s connecting learners, educators and employers.

(Kapeesh Saraf, 2019)

MOOCs might perhaps be realising that it is not just a question of posting material online for everyone to consume but it is about the need to bring together all interested parties in a continuous effort to meet the needs of different communities. Couple this with the need (still evident) of having face-to-face contact and it seems that teachers will not be out of a profession any time soon.

 

References:

Johnson, S. (2019). Much Ado About MOOCs: Where Are We in the Evolution of Online Courses? Available at: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-02-26-much-ado-about-moocs-where-are-we-in-the-evolution-of-online-courses. (Accessed: 15th February 2020).

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People Want to Know About Algorithms—but Not Too Much

When we interact with algorithms, we know we are dealing with machines. Yet somehow their intelligence and their ability to mimic our own patterns of thought and communication confuse us into viewing them as human. 

Kartik Hosanagar

The trust that students place in education systems is a finely-balanced thing and this article goes to show how too much information can create distrust and loss of confidence in re-establishes systems.

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References:

H. Hosanagar (2019). People Want to Know About Algorithms – but Not Too Much. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/book-excerpt-algorithm-transparency/. (Accessed: 8th February 2020).

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My MOOC – Learning to Learn

My experimental dive into MOOC took off with Learning to learn by McMaster University & University of California San Diego through Coursera.

The course is, in my opinion, pretty standard with an introductory video, list of readings and the occasional quiz. The course is self-paced and started today. A number of people, in fact, have already started discussing some of the course content.

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I eventually changed MOOC due to limited community interaction.