Introduction
MOOCs standing for Massive Open Online Courses happen to be a new educational tool for transformation in the education sector. MOOCs have created and generated lots of excitement in the recent years among majority in the world recently creating doubts. MOOCs seem to be having very many stakeholders as seen by the increased MOOC courses, discussion groups and blogs talking about these courses. MOOCs seems so promising the main target being students who are signing up for them in large numbers. These courses are free and suit people from all walks of life. In the advent of technology and online communication platforms, MOOCs are gaining ground by the day.
The Hype and the Underestimation
The hype as stated in the topics manifests itself in declaration by New York Times that stated 2012 to be the “Year of the MOOC” [Pappano, 2012]. Underestimation of the other hand is found in statements such as “In fact, the absence of serious pedagogy in MOOCs is rather striking, their essential feature being short, unsophisticated video chunks, interleaved with online quizzes, and accompanied by social networking.” “If I had my wish, I would wave a wand and make MOOCs disappear, but I am afraid that we have let the genie out of the bottle.”[Vardi, 2012]). Sebastian Thrun’s happens to have been the founder of the MOOCs approach which has now become a subject of discussion on almost all media and also many universities trying to reform their systems so that they are not left out of this approach. Both hype and underestimation are based on assumptions and beliefs other than facts and reality. These two factors are the end points of MOOCs they will help us decide on whether these online courses are the answer to modern education or whether we should now give up on MOOCs.
Any project conducted has its shortcomings and mistakes and MOOCs are not an exception. Lots of controversies have been raised thus creating the need to explore into details this approach through research. The research attempts to provide answers to certain questions such as:
• Who are the students best suited for the MOOCs?
• Do MOOCs create a good social learning environment?
• Are the online courses reliable?
As stated above projects have problems, and I will look deeper into one of this issues. The major problem with the majority of those taking these courses is the lack of interest and motivation. Those intending to take MOOCs could differ in the way they participate and engage themselves. Most people lack the willingness and passion to serious learning, and this could be as a result of various factors such as pedagogy used in MOOC, likes/dislikes for MOOCs and personal achievements among others.
The main question to ask ourselves right now is what will motivate students? To try and answer this, it’s important to determine the intention of those who enroll for MOOCs. The participants come from different professions all in different fields. For example, some could be professors, life -long learners, just but to mention a few. The only common factor they share is to interact with other participants. It has long been known that people will want to get involved in activities where they are being rewarded or in those which they find meaningful to them. It is one of the contributing factors to the lack of interest while taking up the online courses.
When students engage and interact with each other, they gain a lot on the content of the course, and most of them are willing this method of teaching whereas a minority may not like the approach. This divergence in interests creates a big problem because those who are against the approach are not bold enough to speak out their minds publicly. These feelings count a lot on the student’s attitude towards MOOCs as they may feel lonely and not willing anymore to continue interacting with professors or even other participants. To add onto those cases of negative criticisms on the forum postings could also be present.
Most of the MOOCs participants are usually graduates and only enroll to make themselves familiar with the method of teaching used. Therefore, they have no goals or objectives set for themselves and thus are not motivated to achieving something at the end of the course. Massive open online courses are free, and many take that fact for granted and just learn for the sake of learning. As a result, most of them sign up with no intention of finishing the course. Students can be motivated to participate based on their curiosity, and motivation to gain more knowledge, becoming members of intellectual communities. It will be much better as compared to many drop-outs out there in current universities. Parents are always concerned to know the quality of education this approach offers and evidently it cannot be compared to the kind of education offered in universities. A major factor is the lack of resources that are inadequate and inappropriately used.
Online courses largely are affecting the way most universities operate and that is why major meetings are being held behold universities will never at any one-time stand in the way of the society. Distance learning, however much the criticism will always play a vital role in people’s lives and can never be ignored.
Works cited
Hoxby, Caroline Minter. The economics of online postsecondary education, MOOCs, nonselective education, and highly selective education. Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2014. Print.
Lawton, William, and Alex Katsomistros. MOOCs and disruptive innovation: the challenge to HE business models. London: Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, 2012
