from the see-me-feel-me-teach-me-heal-me dept.
When massive open online courses first grabbed the spotlight in 2011, many saw in them promise of a revolutionary force that would disrupt traditional higher education by expanding access and reducing costs. The hope was that MOOCs — classes from elite universities, most of them free, in some cases enrolling hundreds of thousands of students each — would make it possible for anyone to acquire an education, from a villager in Turkey to a college dropout in the United States.
Following the “hype cycle” model for new technology products developed by the Gartner research group, MOOCs have fallen from their “peak of inflated expectations” in 2012 to the “trough of disillusionment.”
There are several reasons for the disillusionment. First, the average student in a MOOC is not a Turkish villager with no other access to higher education but a young white American man with a bachelor’s degree and a full-time job.
Eight of every 10 students enrolled in University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania MOOCs in 2012-13 already had a degree of some kind. The credentials gap was most pronounced in countries where the courses were supposed to have the biggest impact among the undereducated: Some 80 percent of MOOC students in Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Africa had a college degree, while in the overall population only 5 percent did. The data represents more than two dozen courses offered through Coursera, a for-profit company that partners with universities and organizations to offer the online courses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/education/edlife/demystifying-the-mooc.html
Jeffrey J. Selingo is author of “MOOC U: Who Is Getting the Most Out of Online Education and Why” (Simon & Schuster), from which this essay is adapted.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday October 31 2014, @05:31PM
The only people I know who do those are college dropouts who say ,"Look ma, I'm still in school! Can I have monies?" Then they drop out of the MOOC after the first couple modules because homework is too hard.
Also, Filipinos sound like "mooc mooc mooc" when they talk. I knew a Filipina once, she took the 4-inch extender with ease. That's a total of 9-10 inches including the rest of me, balls-deep. But god damn, never date an Asian. They are incredibly crafty and will use every trick in their book to maintain control over you and your four-inch Cyberskin Transformer penis-extender.
(Score: 1) by aiwarrior on Friday October 31 2014, @05:59PM
Ethanol-fueled you are so fucked up ahahhahahahah, moving on topic...
The reason I see that MOOCs fail is that there are no stakes involved. No money, no commitment to nobody. If there would be, I am sure people would finish them.
On the topic of demographics, at least among my friends in Portugal, only the already educated are giving it a shot. They do not finish because they don't have the will power required. I have never heard of a less educated friend even mentioning MOOCs much less trying one.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Friday October 31 2014, @06:14PM
I'm 2/3rds the way through a CS degree before going back to work. I'd like to give MOOCs a shot, but I'm realistic enough to know that between my job (25% travel) and family (spouse + 3 small kids) there is no time for the course work.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @08:24PM
University lectures are all about providing insight to be able to learn on your own. I find them useful and regularly watch lectures on topics that interest me on iTunesU and YouTube.
However, I don't really have the time or disposition to work through the average course assignment treadmill anymore. It was bad enough when I was doing it full time. Some topics will need review and problem sets others won't but 99% of university courses require you to hand in assignments as if they were short of toilet paper.
Top American universities are specially bad. Companies hire you because they know they can treat you like shit and working through the night and still see that as normal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @08:09PM
Worrying about the low completion rates of MOOCs is pretty misleading. When the cost to sign up is a few clicks on a website, a lot of people are going to do it. There's an easy metric for estimating how many of those users were serious about completing the course: look at how many actually completed the course. If the absolute number completing the course is low, then you have an argument for low impact, but, in reality, those numbers are actually pretty high. Also, some of the drop-outs are people who already knew some of the material and wanted to learn the rest, so they didn't bother with the entire course.
(Score: 1) by MikeVDS on Sunday November 02 2014, @08:36PM
I personally do not see a problem with this. My personal problem is that I over-schedule myself. I realize this about myself and to fill that last bit of time I have I take MOOCs that seem interesting. I know it is unlikely that I will be able to complete all the courses on their schedule, but I can learn a little and maybe even complete the course on my schedule. I find it a better alternative to sitting in front of a TV.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday November 01 2014, @07:15AM
Funny how a first post that gets buried still manages to stifle discussion on what should otherwise be a lively topic?