MOOCs: A Cheaper Alternative To Higher Education

Image Source:bit.ly/1b9DQOO

MOOCs are certainly taking the world of education by storm. They are providing keen students a platform to continue their education. MOOCs are becoming so popular that some of the biggest universities have agreed to provide backing for many of their courses. Students these days are looking for cheaper alternative to colleges and universities as college fees are going up by the day and some students can’t travel to universities to earn their education. Through MOOCs, they can sit at home and complete their higher education.

 Here are a few interesting facts about MOOCs.

• Just four months after the launch, Coursera had a million users signed up
• In a MOOC, 61.5 percent of the students who enrol are from countries outside USA
• Coursera presently has 62 universities partnering them and a total of 3.3 million students who have enrolled from over 196 countries
• Out of the students who have enrolled, 70 percent already have a bachelor’s degree or higher qualifications
• Countries like China, Brazil, India, UK and Canada boast of a high percentage of student enrolments
• Out of all the students enrolled, at least 50 percent are of the age 26 or more
• 80 percent of the students take these online courses for credit
• A downside of MOOCs is that, they do not offer credits. However, that may change very soon
• MOOCs don’t require tuition fees, meaning, they are free and around 86 percent of MOOCs do not require text books

Professors who teach at MOOCs

• 2/3 of the professors are tenured
• 73 percent of the professors who teach at MOOCs own the content of their courses
• A majority of the professors teaching at MOOCs have teaching experience of 10 years or more
• The professors who teach at MOOCs spend 100 hours in prepping for each class
• To make higher education more attainable, 71.8 percent of professors taught a MOOC
• The professors who teach at a MOOC spend about eight hours, each week, ‘in class’
• 50 percent of the professors think that online classes have the same difficulty level as traditional classes but 70 percent do not agree with the fact that the students ought to get credit from their home institute
• Every class has around 33,000 students enrolled in it

The year 2012 came to be known as the year of the MOOC as the foundation rose rapidly in that one year. Critics may say that MOOCs are unreliable but supporters believe that MOOCs will change the face of the education system. Some also believe that MOOC is the future of education. A student, who attends a traditional college, spends hundreds on textbooks but 86 percent of the professors don’t even require text books, making the MOOC a cheaper option for students.

Majority of the professors who teach at MOOCs say that they had to change the way they taught in class after teaching at MOOCs and the change was for the better. So basically, MOOCs are on a high and very soon will become a ‘complete’ institution, changing the face of education.

Education: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow!

Education is important for one and all and it’s been around for quite a long time now. In this field, a lot of things have changed in the last few years. Technology has advanced with time and these various technological innovations have actually made the field much more superior and promising. So, how the education sector has changed with time? How it was a few weeks back and what happened to it now? Let us see the milestones of education and how it got transformed with time.

• Education in ancient times 

Image Source:bit.ly/1cqvho5

The Hieroglyphics in Egypt and the Phoenician writing in Greece evolved with the development of writing around the globe. Homer used writing tablets and the Romans started using wax tablets as well as metal styluses to write in order to wipe off the surface and write in it once again. The Greeks then started using textbooks and so on, the Romans opened schools for the children and aimed at teaching them the acts of socialisation. The Royal Library in Alexandria was built by the Egyptians and it is now considered to be the largest as well as the most significant libraries worldwide. In India, Nalanda University started to provide the graduate and post graduate learners with degrees.

• Education in Middle Ages 

Image Source:bit.ly/1d2Xe3Z

In France, England and Italy, the first universities were developed. They were considered to be medieval institutions at that time and were basically the centre of art, medicine, law and theology. “Gramaticam Latinam” made up the core students’ learning experiences. It consisted of logic, geometry, Latin grammar, rhetoric, geometry, astronomy, and music. In the various medieval institutions, the lecture format got started. The lecturers started reading from the texts and taught the learners who took notes on their notebooks. Johaness Gutenberg created the printing press and simple changed the way of reading through textbooks.

• Education in Renaissance 

Image Source:bit.ly/1l8Qd2n

Scientific and pre-professional trainings were started and peoples were taught and trained to become doctors, lawyers, etc. The Renaissance period emphasised on the study of five humanities called poetry, grammar, rhetoric, moral philosophy and history. The scientific methods were developed to focus on the important contributions of anatomy, astronomy and biology.

• Early Education in the US 

In Massachusetts, the Boston Latin School was founded and it gradually became the first public school in the United States. And it is still there as the first school in the US. Horace Mann, the Secretary of Education designed a state-wide system for all the professional educators. In the mid 19th to mid 20th century, the McGuffey readers were popularised. “Literacy, hard work, diligence and virtuous living” were idealised by textbook leanings.

Image Source:bit.ly/1c1W7Nd

• Contemporary Education in the US 

The education laws got developed with time. In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided the federal aid for public schools. The college resources got strengthened and the students got financial aid. Computers got introduced in education and in 1960s, the educators at the Dartmouth included computers as an important academic machines. Tablets and Smartphones got released and it totally changed the norms of education. The popularity of MOOCs grew with time. Students from all over the globe started applying for degrees from universities worldwide. Social Medias and networking profiles helped people to gain knowledge and communicate with each other. This helped them to learn more than what one can learn in a brick and mortar classroom. There was an effective growth of open content through Wikipedia and other similar sites.

• Education in the coming years 

Image Source:bit.ly/JY5mZn

It is believed that open knowledge, from the various Open Education Resources (OER) on the web will gradually lessen the demand of textbooks. There will be an increase in demand of highly specialised learning and the programmes offering these skills will grow in time. The role of educators will never get diminished but their roles will be changed with time. Technology will help the educators reach out to more learners and this way, they will make learning an effective and affordable mode of learning. Professional training will grow with time and there will be new ways of training the learners.