{"id":85465,"date":"2016-08-17T10:34:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T15:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=85465"},"modified":"2017-04-07T19:19:31","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T00:19:31","slug":"6-planning-moocs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2016\/08\/6-planning-moocs\/","title":{"rendered":"6 things to consider if you are planning to take MOOCs"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are all the rage, but they are not for everyone. Here are six things to consider.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nIn our busy lives that demand that we continue growing and developing professionally, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be a godsend. \u00a0MOOCs are online courses that support virtually unlimited participation . Typically, they include video footage of lectures, readings, problem sets, along with interactive user forums.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, there are scores of MOOC providers from which to choose. Some of the providers are well known tertiary institutions with a long tradition in education, such as Stanford University and the Massachusett Institute of Technology.. However, most were recently established, such as Cousera and Udacity, and have partnered with known brick and mortar universities (e.g. Harvard, Princeton and Wharton universities) to offer courses on those platforms. <\/span><\/p>\n

Though MOOCs continue to gain popularity, and to varying degrees are threatening local institutions that depend on in-person attendance, below are six considerations to determine whether MOOCs might be right for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0More affordable than in-person classes<\/b>. More often than not, most of the courses offered by a provide are free, which makes them a highly attractive option in today\u2019s age, where we tend to balk at having to pay for online services. However, for the courses that have a fee attached, they tend to be considerably cheaper than what one would pay to attend the same course(s) in a brick and mortar institution. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0Scheduling flexibility<\/b>. Another big plus of MOOCs is the fact that users can incorporate the sessions into their schedules at their convenience. Hence for those of us who work full time and might only have some time available in the evenings or on weekends, we can still access the courses and continue to develop ourselves.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. \u00a0Accreditation can be an issue<\/b>. If completing accredited courses in order to advance your career is important, then exercise care in selecting a provider and course that satisfies that requirement. Generally, many MOOC providers are not accredited, and their courses tend not count as credits for a programme of study in a formal institution.. <\/span><\/li>\n
  4. \u00a0Quality of the course.<\/b> \u00a0As can be expected, the quality of MOOCs in terms of the content, and how the material is delivered, can vary considerably from provider to provider, especially since many of the courses are being offered free of charge. Further, testing of student learning and proficiency might be non-existent, which again can reflect the quality of the overall course.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. \u00a0Limited interaction with lecturers and classmates<\/b>. For those of us who benefit considerably from interacting with our classmates and lecturers, or working in teams, the MOOC model might be a challenge. MOOCs tend to be a solitary endeavour – that individuals do by themselves and on their own schedule, and may not be a good fit for those of us who thrive from a more a hands-on approach or from engaging others.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. \u00a0Students need discipline to complete courses<\/b>. \u00a0Typically, the completion rate of a MOOC is no more than 10% of the enrolment. Hence, the likelihood of the average individual completing a course is quite low. Hence, if the course is important, and one\u2019s willpower and discipline is low, it may be better to select another avenue of learning, such as face-to-face tuition, or a more structured form of distance learning, in order to be successful.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Image credit: \u00a0Alan Levine<\/a>\u00a0(flickr)<\/em><\/p>\n

    _____________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are all the rage, but they are not for everyone. Here are six things to consider. In our busy lives that demand that we continue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,11,33],"tags":[49,40,34,50],"class_list":["post-85465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computing","category-ict-tech","category-lists","tag-education","tag-expertise-hr","tag-lists-2","tag-productivity","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Lecture-Hall-Alan-Levine-flickr.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-met","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96980,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85465\/revisions\/96980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}