MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as New Educational Technology

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as New Phenomenal Educational Technology. -- E-Learning has been practiced for more than 10 years. The term “E-Learning” is described as the use of electronic medium to learn remotely. In practice, E-Learning was less followed and inperson classroom-based didactic lectures were identified as a major source of educating students.

However, with the time, technological development and the trending sociological culture, E-Learning became a solution for the universities and institutions to deliver education effectively and efficiently. Yet it was facing major problems such as students often complaining the isolation, less interactivity and less collaboration which they used to have in face to face class room environments.

owever, in 2012, a new phenomenal educational technology was introduced as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). MOOCs are trending because it opened educational opportunities for many who cannot afford education offered by elite universities for free of charge, resulting thousands of enrollments to online courses. In 2012, New York times pronounced the year of MOOCs since giant MOOC players were introduced, such as edX, Coursera and Udacity. However, by 2016, MOOCs trends were identified to be fading.

The pedagogy of the MOOC typically includes small chunks of video lectures, formative quizzes, self-graded and peer graded assignments and discussion forums. Many researchers have identified that MOOCs provides a sound pedagogy and enhances the opportunities to learn. However, with the time (4 years since its introduction), some researchers questioned the quality of actual learner experience.

They are skeptical of the MOOCs and claim that it directs to the pedagogically failed didactic education (Daniel, 2012). They argue that the learner is focused on lecture based learning where platform does not facilitate or encourage the skills required for 21st century such as critical thinking, collaborative learning. Many MOOCs found to be having only 15% completion rate leaving many learners unsuccessful to complete courses (Bali, 2014).

Many researchers attempt to address the MOOC completion rates issue by increasing interactivity or improving assessment with interventions. However, those will be a short patch for a broader problem. The broader problem is “How can we improve the effectiveness of learning experience in MOOCs?” This broader question can address by few objective questions: What factors affects the effectiveness of MOOCs? How can we measure the improvement of effectiveness? In what way MOOCs platforms can be improved or what solutions can be implemented and integrated into improve MOOCs platforms using the dimensions found above questions?

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