The Rising Power of MOOCs: Now, everyone can learn at Harvard (or Yale, or…)
3 years ago, MOOCs were an idea. Now….
5 million: number of students signed on to MOOCs, around the world
33,000: the average number of students that sign up for a MOOC
The Dream: MOOCs Can:
o Offer Ivy League Courses at non-Ivy League prices (free), thus….
o Lifting people out of poverty
o Unlock billions of brains to solve the world’s biggest problems
And yet
1 in 4: Americans don’t even know what a MOOC is.
They are: Massive Open Online Courses.
Who Takes MOOCs:
o 37% have a B.S. degree
o 28% have a Master’s degree or profession
o 27% high school
Majority of those taking MOOCs tend to be young, male and employed, from highly developed countries.
o Over 40% of students are under 30 years old
o Less than 10% over 60
o 88 % of MOOC students are male
o 62 % are employed
o 13% are unemployed…or retired
Comparison of geographic location of students, by self identification and IP address
o U.S. 34% of MOOC students
o India: 7.28 %
o Brazil: 4.37 %
o Great Britain: 3.89%
o Canada: 3.4%
o Spain: 2.7 %
o Russia: 2.5%
o China: 2%
o Australia: 2%
o Germany: 1.7%
Employment:
o Student: 17.4%
o Part time employed: 6.9%
o Full time employed: 50%
o Self employed: 12.4%
o Unemployed: 6.6%
o Retired: 6.8%
Why do students Participate in MOOCs?
o Gain knowledge to get degree: 13.2%
o Gain specific skills to do job better: 43.9%
o Gain specific skills to get a new job: 17%
o Curiosity: 50%
[Those surveyed could pick more than one answer]
Requirements for successful online learning:
o Quality of material covered in the course
o Engagement of the teacher
o Interaction among students
Accredited Online (only) Schools offer MOOCs
edX: Courses from:
o Massachusetts Institute of Technology
o Harvard
o University of California Berkeley
Coursera: Courses from:
o California Institute of Technology,
o University of Washington,
o Stanford University,
o Princeton University,
o Duke University
o John Hopkins University, and many others.
Udacity: Partner companies include:
o Google
o Facebook
o Bank of America
Udemy Free courses from:
o Dartmouth,
o the University of Virginia
o Northwestern and others….
iTunes Free Courses
o Apple’s free app. Right in the app, they can play video or audio lectures. Read books and view presentations.
Top Universities offer MOOCs:
o Stanford Free Courses – from Quantum Mechanics to The Future of the Internet.
o Stanford’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: 160,000 students from 190 countries signed up to Stanford’s Introduction to AI” course, with 23,000 reportedly completing.
o UC Berkeley Free Courses. Check out Berkeley Webcasts and Berkeley RSS feeds.
o MIT Free Courses: MIT’s RSS MOOC feed, and MIT’s Open Courseware.
o Duke Free Courses – Duke offers a variety of courses on ITunesU.
o Harvard Free Courses: Get a free Harvard education. No application required.
o UCLA Free Courses
o Yale Free Courses – Check out Open Yale
o Carnegie Mellon Free Courses – “No instructors, no credits, no charge”
Pros and Cons of MOOCs:
Pros: By design, MOOCs are….
Incredibly flexible
Diverse in their range of subjects
Open to anyone
Free.
And Downs:
No credit for completion
Lack of hands on learning
100,000 or more to 1, student to teacher ratio
High dropout rates of up to 90%
Sources:
http://poetsandquants.com/2013/12/17/the-mooc-revolution-the-best-mba-electives-for-free/
http://www.bdpa-detroit.org/portal/index.php/comittees/high-school-computer-competition-hscc/29-education/57-moocs-top-10-sites-for-free-education-with-elite-universities.html
Paper: The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses, and Why? By G. Christensen, A. Steinmetz, B. Alcorn, D. Woods, A Bennett, and E.J. Emanel. (U. of Pennsylvania)
http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/tp/Top-Massively-Open-Online-Courses-Moocs.htm
http://www.technapex.com/2012/11/weighing-the-pros-and-cons-of-massive-open-online-courses-moocs/
