The Open Online Courses ( Moocs )

Education has long been the frontier for society and academic advancement in one’s life. Long gone are the days where only a handful of people were expected to enter into college and earn a degree. In 2014, there are so many colleges and universities that one can choose from. Not only is the choice, whether or not they attend school, but the choice is, whether they want to attend school online or in a traditional college setting of brick and mortar.

Getting into college are the goal for many students, yet MOOCs are a much cheaper option for students who are ready for the material and the challenge. Cristina mendoza is one of three students, along with James Gregory, and Hugh Gallagher, who’s goals are to go into into a good college and acheive success in life. She is one of many smart and diverse people who are capable of completing a MOOC. There are many things, such as her acceptance of her diverse nature, her smarts, and uniquness of her work shows that she is the most capable of taking part in and completing a online learning environment successfully.

Many students have a difficult time choosing between online education and traditional education. Both styles of education offer advantages and disadvantages to the student. There are many things to consider when making this life altering decision, such as, cost, convenience, time, social interaction, and technology. This information is meant to inform prospective students looking to further their education of the pros and cons of both online education and traditional education. Taking the steps to further your education is a big decision and one that should not be taken lightly. One should weigh all of his/her options and be well informed and certain of their choice before taking that leap.

According to Lyttle (2015), an artist gave the inmates inside jail an online course in Norfolk City Jail with TED talk in order to inspire them to live a better life. This artist expects that inmates inside jail can acquire knowledge as well. As a kind of open online courses, TED talk is famous and popular. Mbuva (2014) states that online education is a distance education, which depends on internet technology to realize teaching and spreading knowledge. In this paper, online refers to not only open online courses, such as massive open online course (MOOCS), but also refer to online courses provided by traditional colleges for their registered students. Enter the twenty-first century, most aspects of society have been impacted profoundly by

Even with these disadvantages, Massive Open Online Courses are still a positive aspect for the current and future online students because with the free and easily accessible MOOCS classes, perspective online students have an alternative to education and it’s free! In order for the online universities to stay competitive, it is likely that MOOCS may force online universities to significantly lower online courses that are for credit (Casement, 2013).

In the article, “Year of the MOOC”, by Laura Pappano, she states that “some students are also ill prepared for the university level work”. This means that students aren’t ready for a MOOC assignment. After looking over, “Chunky Peanut Butter” by James Gregory, I believe that Gregory would be an amazing applicant for MOOCs (massive open online course) because he’s determined, selfless, and works out of the public view.

The University of Florida’s (UoF) realization that brick and mortar schools no longer serve as the only means to attaining a higher education established an institutional paradigm shift (Kuhn, 2012) on education delivery. The university’s evolution of an online education developed alongside the growth of technology (Blocher, DeMontes, Willis, & Tucker, 2002) and the needs of the community (University of Florida, Distance Learning, 2016). For the UoF, online programs began transforming as early as 1947 when challenged to adapt during world events such as the need to deliver GED home study courses to nearly 6,000 immigrants (University of Florida, History, 2016). In years that followed, an increasingly competitive environment (Volery & Lord, 2000) led to the video taping of lectures in 1991 and to the online courses and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that initiated in 2013. In its early development MOOCs were housed under the Coursera website since it provided an opportunity to test online courses (Coursera.com, 2016; College Factual, 2016). Today, the UoF houses both MOOCs and online programs within the Division of Continuing Education (DCE), which the university established in 2009 and dedicated full-time faculty to it due to the steady growth of online education (University of Florida, Distance and Continuing Education, 2016).

The essay examples given, all vary in style. Mendoza’s essay talked about the trials of being mixed and confused. Gregory’s example of peanut butter jelly sandwiches went into good use. Gallagher’s ability to tell lies and still give a good idea as to who is as a person was great. The point of writing their essay was to show that if they are good candidates for MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses).MOOC is looking for dependable, on task people and Gregory fits the bill. Mendoza and Gallagher are prime examples of why MOOC is not good for everyone.

A Mooc is a massive open online course, a common course would last around 6 to 10 weeks. You can take all types of college courses for free, the only downside is that It’s creditless. I have been researching three students named Gallagher, Mendoza, and Gregory. By examining Gallagher’s creativity, eagerness to learn, and his confidence, it is clear that he is the best candidate for a MOOC.

When most people hear about online schooling, they think about the ability to wake up at anytime, to wear pajamas while doing classwork, and to learn in the comforts of their own home. Albeit the idea of online schooling may seem glamorous, recent findings display unsatisfactory results from students in the virtual classroom. With certain states advocating for the online school’s access to AP classes and credit recovery, the presence of online schooling expands rapidly. However, doubts for the value of digital learning proliferates, warning parents to regard this alternative with caution. In Sean Coughlan’s “Online schools ‘worse than traditional teachers,’” he discusses the insufficient results of online schooling whereas Daphne Koller advocates for the usage of online schooling in “The Future of College: It’s Online.” By using ethos,

MOOC providers have created video lectures, readings, and problem sets that seek to modify, and in some cases, replace entirely the need for a physical campus to complete a degree in higher education. The most notable MOOCs, Coursera, Udacity, and edX, emerged in 2012, “The Year of the MOOC” according to the New York Times, and have since attracted millions of registered students. Coursera and Udacity are both for-profit spin-offs from Stanford that offer a wide variety of courses taught by professors from some of the most prestigious universities in the world, such as Stanford itself, Princeton, the University of Michigan, and the University of Toronto. edX, on the other hand, is a non-profit partnership of MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley that offers both a platform that universities can customize to create their own courses, as well as a range of courses that are pre-developed by edX. In many cases, MOOCs are offered for free, incentivizing students to expand their knowledge with essentially nothing to lose. In other instances, when MOOCs have partnered with educational institutions to supplement or replace a physical classroom education, the MOOCs are offered for credit and at a lower cost than an in-person education.

“This approach considers the student a motivated learner and the faculty a facilitator for learning. They challenge the 'sage on stage' and encourage the faculty to 'be the guide on the side'” (Bajaj). Additionally, Massive Open Online Courses allow class preparation, discussions, and practical learning. While some educators feel MOOCs are a threat to an educator, Gita Bajaj provides the examples of Wikipedia or the Khan Academy, where any professor could add a video courses. The author also mentions how one professor can influence millions of students by independently developing lectures and offer courses online.

In today’s society, so many people are continuing their education beyond high school. We realize that in order to make a decent living, a degree is most likely a requirement. In some cases even a bachelor’s degree is not enough to qualify for many positions. Nevertheless, thanks to technology, we now have the option to learn online or in a traditional classroom setting. There are very few differences between the two, and students need to understand that as much time and energy will need to be devoted to the online courses as on a campus. “A 2010 meta-analysis and review of online-learning studies concluded that online learning was as good as or slightly more effective than traditional face-to-face instruction” (Mendenhall, 2011).

Online college courses are almost becoming traditional for students. Some may perceive that a student does not receive an equal education when taking an online class. People tend to think that if a teacher is not directly giving the information about the subject, the course learning experience is different or unjust. This assumption is wrong according to the perception of many online course takers. Online college courses offer students the advantage to learn on their own time. The skills that a student learns in self-discipline, scheduling to complete graded assignments, and advantages learned with technology gives online classes equal education experience compared to classes on campus.

Technology is changing every aspect in our lives, even the way we learn. Online classes are a rapidly growing trend it today’s society. Online classes are a cost-effective substitute for traditional courses and more convenient for many, so more schools and universities are offering this option. Due to the increase in online course enrollment, people are questioning if students truly learn something from online classes because it’s not a traditional learning environment. Online classes are just, if not more, effective as traditional classes because grades have increased and online discussions provide students with the chance to interact through networking while earning a degree for less than what it would cost to enroll at the same university.