Originally posted by sarah jones on August 3, 2018
MOOCs offer a lot of educational opportunities, but who is benefiting? My literature search on challenges and problems of MOOCs has revealed significant limitations. For a decade now, technologists have talked about MOOCs’ potential for democratizing education. I created an animation to demonstrate why the potential of MOOCs has not been fully realized, and I present a possible solution for reaching educational equity.
I used the free trial of Vyond to create my animation.
I thought this was quite a good analysis of the “Massively Open Online Course” (MOOC). The suggestions made to improve access and engagement among people of varying backgrounds and environments is strong and Sarah’s analysis of some of the shortcomings (particularly catering primarily to already privileged individuals) are much larger challenges also faced when integrating technology into learning. The focus of this video was primarily around accessibility, and I felt the level of detail regarding a strategy for K-12 was limited and could have been improved upon. In particular, I think that as the learner gets younger and younger, the importance of the educator as a leader and facilitator increases. Currently, we are seeing large tech companies that believe that if you put everything needed to learn on a computer and reward with some badges and leaderboards it will result in a superior education, but they are totally missing the social and community aspect of education (something that has come into the forefront more than ever during the current COVID-19 pandemic).