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MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) is a new paradigm of education for anyone, anywhere, anytime. It came up with numerous opportunities both for students as well as teachers. Follow the post " MOOC and Technical Education " to know more about MOOC. In this section has discussed both sides of coin for MOOC in current education system and its impact on effective Teaching and Learning process.

(1) MOOC creates the opportunity for sharing ideas & knowledge and also helps improving lifelong learning skills by providing easy access to global resources.

(2) It improves cross cultural relationships which leads to collaboration between institution educators and learners locally and internationally.

(3) It gives an idea where I stand in the course in the current world as large number of students all over the globe would have registered for the same course on the same common platform and participate in the activities and discussion in the study group.

(4) MOOC enhances active learning. Research shows that students learn more through active learning (i.e. when they have assignments or discussion on an issue) rather than through listening to lectures. Students listen to lectures more attentively if they have been given a problem or task to solve before the lecture. In this regard the structure that most MOOCs have - short lectures alternating with assignments and quizzes - seems to be ideal. Of course, one could also do this in a classroom, but it would be more difficult to ensure that all students participate: some might need longer to assimilate the content of the lecture, and prefer to listen to it again before doing the assignment [2]. Peer-to-peer contact facilitated by MOOC can also trigger effective active learning.

(5) MOOC encourages flipping the classroom. Teacher-student contact time usually used for lectures could be used differently, e.g. for discussions, experiments, project and group-work, working with peers etc. Students watch lectures online at home and interact with faculty regarding their doubts while in class. It has been strongly advocated and demonstrated by Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, in the context of school teaching. Teachers get time to work with students on an individual basis.

(6) Knowledge sharing in Discussion Forum helps reflective and global learners along with active and sequential learners. Reflective learners who are not able to share ideas inside the physical classroom can put their ideas in discussion forum ad get the view points of others. Global learners who feel themselves lost in the beginning can share their diverse ideas on the forum and can get other's suggestions to find their solution. To know about different types of learners follow the post "Different Learning Styles".

(7) "No exam fever" encourages deep approach of learning against the surface & strategic approach of learning.To know more about different approach of learning follow the post "Different strategies of learning".

(8) Peer evaluation provides the opportunity to learn via grading others. Because it is the best way to learn when you teach or grade someone else.

(9) MOOC provides the opportunity to learn from world class universities and from renowned instructors without being a student of the respective university while sitting in the any part of the world.

(10) MOOC opens up the facility to get free of cost "s tatement of accomplishment" signed by the instructor of the course, which someone completes in all respect according to the requirement of the subject. There are provision to earn the verified certificates with university logo and instructor signature on the payment of the course fee. Anyone can show these certificates at the time of job applications also. The employer can go to the corresponding MOOC provider database to get the information regarding the candidate. Some universities also started allowing to fulfill credit requirements of a degree from the MOOC courses.
Dis-advantages of MOOC:
(1) MOOC provides all the video lectures and slides along with all related reading resources. This gives the students scope for not going through the lectures gradually but whole lectures in a single day which does not lead to deep understanding of the concepts.

(2) Real time question answering is also not possible while going through the lectures.

(3) Technical courses needing physical hands-on practical exposures (eg. Civil, Mechanical, Electrical etc.) are quite tough to be delivered through MOOC.

(4) There is no opportunity for effective assessment methods like Q&A in classroom, surprise quizzes and presentations.

(5) No proper evaluation methods are there as automatic machine assessments and evaluations are not effective. Peer evaluation sometimes lead to discouragement among students which lead them to dropout from the course.

(6) MOOC style of education will gradually kill the care, empathy and respect involved between teacher and students in a physical classroom. It only increases the virtual social community.

If you need any more information regarding MOOC education, feel free to drop a comment and will definitely respond to it. We would appreciate if you can give valuable information and suggestions to the other students who need it under this post.

[1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/mathplourde/8620174342/sizes/l/in/photostream/

[2] Michael Gaebel, "MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses - January 2014", EUA Occasional Papers.

MOOC: Advantages and Disadvantages

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MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) is a new paradigm of education for anyone, anywhere, anytime. It came up with numerous opportunities both for students as well as teachers. Follow the post " MOOC and Technical Education " to know more about MOOC.

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Imagine being able to study a course at one of the most prestigious universities in the world like: Oxford, Yale or Harvard? This is possible in a simple way through MOOCs. Over the last two years online learning has experienced a significant boom because of the MOOC learning paradigm. A MOOC simplifies distance learning because of its open, collaborative, massive and free nature.

The acronym MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses, which are designed by leading professors of the most prestigious universities in the world and made freely available to the general public at no cost-becoming a perfect complement to traditional learning. The MOOC philosophy is "the liberation of knowledge so that this reaches a wider audience".

A MOOC is a type of online learning course geared towards the remote education of a very large volume of online users. For distance learning can be considered as MOOC as such, the following set of characteristics must be fulfilled:

Teaching structure in course format: structured towards learning with a series of evaluation tests as proof of MOOC participation and completion.

They must be open and online: with accessible materials available for free.

Massive access: there is no restricted enrollment, i.e. enrollment is unlimited.
Origin
The term MOOC was first coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier to refer to the course by George Siemens and Stephen Downes: "Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08)" (Connectivism and Connected Learning). Afterwards with the collaboration of Dave Cormier and Bryan Alexander, this group began to offer lots of courses such as: CCK09, CCK11, Future of Education, PLENK, etc. Subsequently these courses were highly successful and new initiatives began to emerge.

In 2011 there was a momentous event in the history of MOOCs, the former professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Stanford, Stephen Thrun, together with Peter Norvig, offered to collaborate for an open online course in their field of expertise. Almost 120,000 people signed up for this course. Spurred by this success, Thrun decided to leave Stanford and started the platform: Udacity, a free online university for sharing knowledge.

Afterward there were other large platforms emerged for MOOCs such as: Coursera and Edx. Coursera was created by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng and is currently one of the most important MOOCs platforms because it endorsed by universities such as Yale, Princeton, Michigan or Penn. Alternatively we have Edx, created by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Harvard and Berkeley Universities joining.

In Spain, the first MOOC initiative was Crypt4you, a course in cryptography for programmers of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, directed by Dr. Jorge Ramió and Alfonso Muñoz.

Currently in Spain there are 25 universities offering MOOCs. There are also lots of MOOC platforms and aggregators. Here are some of them:
Platforms Aggregators: Strengths
Free access to courses offered by the best universities in the world, we remove the barrier of space and money. The only limitation is time, since courses usually last between 2-4 weeks, however during this period you will have all the means available for taking the course.

Although the time for enrollment expires, in most cases courses are usually repeated every so often and you will have the opportunity to sign up in the future.

The requirements for studying a MOOC are minimal and the charge in many cases is free (some have a cost, but these are reduced).

Both teachers and students can share a lot of resources such as lectures, videos or any material of interest related to the course. Based on this material, students discuss, send their answers to the exercises and discuss the responses of others. The goal is to build knowledge through communication among students.

Potentially contribute positively to our personal brand, as we can gain some kudus depending on our contribution to the group as well as connect with people sharing our same interests. An online community can be created.

Facilitate both personal and professional development; it not only expands our knowledge through the collective experience but it is also a good way to network as you can interact with other teachers and peers.

Many courses are in English, which is a great opportunity for improving this competency.

Institutions /companies may find it beneficial to offer these courses, since the brand is strengthened. In companies, this is a good way to supplement the training programs organized by the HR department, thus reaching all employees, while providing very specific technical training.
Weaknesses
The main problem of these e-learning courses is the high dropout rate. According to a recent survey undertaken with a million users of the Coursera platform, only 4% of students enrolled for a MOOC complete it. At the same time 50% only take one lesson. This is attributable to the fact that this is not a standard course, such that each person sets their own learning pace leading to possible drop out if they are not motivated enough.

The evaluation method is not entirely clear. How can you evaluate a course with more than 120,000 students? Each college or platform has different assessment methods, but it is still not very clear as to which is the right one. Besides, there is no personalized supervision of students.

The difficulty of achieving course certification, as for some you are requested to pay extra fees.
Future
There are conflicting opinions as far as the future of MOOCs is concerned. On one side, we have an industry that believes that if these courses are able to overcome the current challenges and complications, we will see a new model for university education.

In contrast, according to a January 2014 study, the EUA (European University Association) believes that although the relevance and impact of MOOCs in recent years is apparent, it is impossible to replace traditional education. However, these may end up being another complement to it, but never a substitute.

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MOOCs: pros and cons of a new way of learning

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Imagine being able to study a course at one of the most prestigious universities in the world like: Oxford, Yale or Harvard? This is possible in a simple way through MOOCs. Over the last two years online learning has experienced a significant boom because of the MOOC learning paradigm.

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MOOCs are online courses that give participants free access to courses of their choice. What distinguish MOOCs is that they are available to the diverse audience around the world with free access. It makes learning accessible to everyone and everywhere. It also removes some of the financial constraints that we often see in higher education, where not everyone can afford to continue their education in a university or other institute. MOOC allows learners to share knowledge with a large exposure and access to many information. Many professors who teach in universities ask their students to refer to these platforms as the quality of the information that is provided is high. MOOC provides a home-base or self-base learning; it can be so beneficial when used by participants who live in countries that suffer from a lock down of its educational institutes because of the conflicts. Some of the disadvantages that I see in the MOOC design is that it is not designed for people who need some special accommodations and learning courses are not available in different languages. If these issues get tackled, I believe that MOOCs will dominate globally in the education sector and may impact on higher education.

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Some Advantages and Disadvantages of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)

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MOOCs are online courses that give participants free access to courses of their choice. What distinguish MOOCs is that they are available to the diverse audience around the world with free access. It makes learning accessible to everyone and everywhere.

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Everything You Wanted to Know About MOOCs And Were Too Embarrassed to Ask!

MOOCs have been the talk of the learning and development industry for quite some time. But, what exactly are they?

MOOCs Defined

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are online courses that allow participants free access and unrestricted participation to any course of their choice. Besides the conventional modes of teaching such as lectures, videos and reading material; MOOCs also provide a platform for interactive forums.It is also one of the custom eLearning methodologies that encourages self-paced learning which remains focused on the skills that the learners wish to hone.......provide a platform for interactive forums. It is also one of the custom eLearning methodologies that encourages self-paced learning which remains focused on the skills that the learners wish to hone.

MOOCs are further divided into two categories - cMOOCs and xMOOCs.

cMOOCs are MOOCs that allow for dynamic development of study material. That is, instead of having a pre-planned set of reading materials and courseware, the material will be developed through online discussions and collaborations among learners taking the course across the globe.

xMOOCs, on the other hand, believe in the conventional approach where the courses are well-structured with pre-selected reading and reference materials.

A Brief History

MOOCs were first started in 2008, created by George Siemens and Stephen Downs, and was called "Connectivism and Connective Knowledge/2008" or CCK08. It was created as a credit course for the University of Manitoba. CCK08 had 25 students who had paid fees for the course and around 2200 learners who took the course for free.

MOOCs really took off in 2012, when Professors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig of Stanford University offered the online course called "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence". This course had approximately 1,600,000 students participating from 190 countries. After the success of Intro to Artificial Intelligence, Thrun and Nrovig started Udacity, a business model for online knowledge sharing. There are also a few other MOOCs providers, include Coursera and EdX.

The Advantages of MOOCs:

1. Courses are offered for free
2. Access to courses offered by professors at the top schools
3. Courses are available to a vast and diverse audience across the globe
4. Learners' performance can be monitored easily using the data captured during the start of courses
5. Both professors and learners get world-wide exposure, thus improving pedagogical techniques and knowledge sharing
6. Can be used as a tool in a blended learning program, where students can access more information than what is provided in the class

The Disadvantages of MOOCs:

1. Can't provide for personalized courseware and attention from a tutor
2. It is difficult to keep track of students' assignments and involvement
3. Learners with disabilities and a poor Internet connection can't use MOOCs
4. Language can be a barrier while offering MOOCs
5. MOOCs can't be used as a credit-earning course at universities
Further Reading:
Though there are a few drawbacks, MOOCs have a lot of potential for reinventing the way we learn. It will be interesting to see how they progress and grow over time!

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/29260/massive-open-online-course-mooc
https://elearningindustry.com/the-definition-of-a-mooc
http://www.igniteengineers.com/mooc-advantages-and-disadvantages/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq47rjTP2Wc&noredirect=1

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Advantages & Disadvantages of MOOCs for Learning | Infopro Learning

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Everything You Wanted to Know About MOOCs And Were Too Embarrassed to Ask! MOOCs have been the talk of the learning and development industry for quite some time. But, what exactly are they? MOOCs Defined Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are online courses that allow participants free access and unrestricted participation to any course of their choice.

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needing physical hands -on practical exposures as civil,electrical..etc are quite tough to be delivered through MOOC

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lack of assessment  and evaluation as quizzes Q&A

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Some of institutions do not accept MOOC courses

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MOOC allow learners to share knowledge with large exposure and access to many information

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Lack of  interaction mode between instructor-learner 

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Lack of  interaction mode between instructor-learner 

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lack of social and motivational  interaction between instructor  and learners or learners and learners

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MOOCS can be used as a tool in the blended learning program where students can access more information than is presented in the classroom

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anyone from any country with internet access can take a MOOC class

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Courses are  delivered high quality content from best universities in the world   for free