MOOCS Massive Open Online Courses - Case Study Example

MOOCS Massive Open Online s College Table of Contents 0 Technology and SLA………………………………………………….………………………2 2.0 Contributions to the MOOC Project.………………..………………….……………………..3 3.0 Important and Current Developments in MOOC...………………………………………....…6 4.0 Behavioristic Approaches To The Socio-Constructivist And The Personalized In MOOCs....7 5.0 (a) The Theories And Applications Of Network-Based Learning Technologies (NBLT) In TESOL …………………………………………………………………………………….…8 (b) The Employment of NBLT as A Resource for Research and Teaching …….…………...9 (c) The Major Components of Web 2.0 Technologies…………………………………….….9 6.0 MOOCS (MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES) In General Past Present And Future…..11 7.0 The Major Components of Web 2.0 Technologies………………………………………..…14 1.0 Technology and SLA The teachers of foreign dialects have regularly for a long time remained ahead of the others in employment of technology in instruction and learning for they had seen the values of technology even when it was devoid of research to provide backing for their judgment. The volume of applications, technology in communications, and the internet has developed at an astronomical rate over the years. A number of Foreign Language instructors have embraced the new technology as expedient apparatuses in instructions to the students. Conversely, a shoddily conceived interactive undertaking or activity is poor, regardless of whether it is through face to face or via a computer (Chapelle, 1997; Liu et al., 2002; Warschauer & Healey, 1998). So in order to uphold efficacious learning, tasks must be consequential. Owing to the use of technology in SLA, learners have conveyed n affirmative attitude in relation to the application of computer in learning. The use of email for illustration seems to trim down anxiety in interaction in addition to increasing motivation. As a matter of fact, many literature reviews have exhibited positive student attitude as expressed by reduced anxiety levels, improved interest, and greater learner participation (Gray & Stockwell, 1998; Liu et al., 2002; Singhal, 1998.) 2.0 Contributions to the MOOC project Massive Open Online Courses are limitless open access and achievable higher education. MOOCs employs a number of online modules such as video and look to get the most out of a high number student classes by pushing for peer learning linkages in place of synchronous traditional classroom approaches. It can be developed autonomously by academics or by institutions through engagement of third party professionals. Free online courses provide the students with the opportunity to make a selection on the type of course they prefer. This enhances their subsequent experiences and diminishes the rate of dropping out of the course. My involvement in academic writing online course afforded me an opportunity to go through the course and determine how it is beforehand. This prepared me on what to expect and fired me to take the course. There is no need of my physical presence in a classroom since an online classroom can be accessed from anyplace (Heller, 2013). The single prerequisites that I needed was by and large an access to the internet in addition to a computer device or a piece of equipment that could access the internet like an internet enabled mobile phone. This sanctioned for flexibility in that the course could be taken wherever that had internet access. The internet is not constrained by geographical factors and this makes it convenient in all locations. This application of internet in learning is furthermore not constrained by time in addition to geographical factors. This insinuated that even individuals with no access to formal high education because of a various factors were not circumscribed to take part. Another benefit is that most MOOCs are free of almost free (Heller, 2013). This is a definite advantage to the learner but In future can change for the reason that the universities can consider to defray the overheads involved in devising of the MOOC (Heller, 2013). The online writing course I attended had negligible costs that were incurred in contrast to if I had attended the conventional classroom study. MOOCs also in way provided the solution to classroom overcrowding as the man courses that can be taken online are transferred from the classroom to the internet. The online writing course despite the fact that it is largely not intricate diminished the classroom logistics for both the student, in this case me and the institution. MOOCs are particularly short, customarily taking diminutive time at the most when tackling a single topic. This has in a way compelled the professors to reevaluate every single bit of the material made on hand for the MOOCs and as well as their teaching methods (Heller, 2013). This is in looking to enhance the standard of online courses to the level of the conventional classroom method, if not better. The online writing course is particularly well prepared and presented, with progressive questions as the lesson progresses. This has been achieved by work that has been into the project by the institutions or individuals. MOOCs replicate real college courses complete with multiple choice questions, discussions testing comprehension and complete with tests and grades (Heller, 2013). According to Nagy, the online assessment procedure is as good as writing essays inasmuch as it explains the veracious response when the students miscue an answer in addition to letting the learners see the reasoning behind the response when they get it. As Nagy told Heller that his goal was to make the MOOC experience as sound as the Harvard experience (Heller, 2013), implying that online courses were in the process of being better in not better. The online writing course I attended was as good as if I had attended the classroom. It was complete with discussion, questions and the grading system incorporated in it. The MOOCs additionally bring people together from all over the world. The internet makes the world a ‘global village’ making interactions over geographical factors easy. Through my online writing course, I was able to interact with individuals from all over the globe; through discussions that were held over the MOOC. Another significant advantage of MOOC is that it allowed the teachers to utilize the maximum of classroom time where the students were furnished with assignments in form of recorded lectures hence minimizing on the time that would have been expended doing the same (Heller, 2013). This would effectively lead to more valuable discussions or other interactive learning (Heller, 2013). Through my MOOC course, the classroom time was spent well through discussions instead on dwelling on every aspect of the writing course I was undertaking. Among the shortcomings of MOOCs is that with time it could cause the work of teachers to diminish to nothing more than teaching aides-de-camp (Heller, 2013). Heller (2013) wrote that Michael J. Sandel a professor from Harvard inscribed in a letter of remonstration on the prospect of the same justice course being taught all across the country was emphatically scary. Through online courses, the intimacy of face to face interaction is absent and the emotions are frequently misconstrued as they cannot be assessed via the net. Some elements of language are better dealt with face to face like poem. The online writing course I attended was deficient of the invaluable face to face interaction that is relished by real conventional class participants. This showed that there was a challenge of managing a classroom of over 100,000 students taking the same course as I was. The issue of grading is also one of the main concerns in MOOCs (Heller, 2013). Grading a large number of essays over the internet is a challenge and a daunting task to say the least. The online writing course I was attending involved also a large number of students. The grading of such number of essays is a daunting task. The issue of who own the online course when the developer moves on to another place is also an issue that needs to be dealt with (Heller, 2013). There are also questions as to who gets paid for the provision of such an online service. According to Heller (2013), MOOCs will eventually steer to eradication of educational amenities. Heller writes that Bugard sees MOOCs as the eliminators of conventional higher education. The shrinking amenities will also mean shrinking number of Ph.Ds.’ given in turn leading to the elimination of the entire frame of knowledge. 3.0 Important Historical and Current Developments in MOOCs From the year 2008, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) have developed over the years. This has been partly due to the reduced cost technology employed to dispense high education in contemporary ways. In the month of September 2011, three Engineers from Stanford made evident the possibility of the technology to act as a reduced cost high capacity paradigm for online education. The courses drew a substantial chunk of students each to the height of about over 100,000 thousand students. The courses were initially instituted on a conventional way of recorded lectures and other resources hosted on learning management systems of campuses. Following on the footsteps of Stanford, specific institutions have begun to build on more strategic experiments based on xMOOC video format for lectures. Developments have been initiated by institutions or individuals that are research minded who have contracted start up technology firms to provide courses via the online stage. Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched its MOOC the MITx in 2011 which was consequently integrated into edX. edX is a non-profit making MOOC technology platform co-owned by MIT and Harvard. Another platform which was however profit oriented, Cousera was developed in 2012 by Daphn Koller and Andrew Ng. Cousera housed initiatives like Udacity developed by Sebastian Thrum and Udemy which work at a personal level with academics (Yuan & Powell, 2013). 4.0 Behavioristic Approaches To The Socio-Constructivist And The Personalized In MOOCs The prevailing higher education system is established on behaviorist and cognitive theories. The behavioristic approach proposes that in privation of knowing the inner courses of the learner, the emphasis is on the exterior which is in other words the conduct of the learner. The behaviorist learning paradigm follows the sequence, A → B → C, where the background bestows the precursor (A), that bring about a behavior (B), that is then followed by an end result (C). Attributes of this approach comprise inactiveness of the learner, memorization learning and ways of fortification. The cognitive inclination goes further than the external circumstances, in addition lays emphases on the interior where learning is a progression accomplished inside the learner’s long as well as short-term memory. The instructor regulates and points in the right direction, learning via scheduled instruction, selection of subject matter, and tutors the student via the building of knowledge or skills by means of a ranked approach from the effortless to complex (Roblyer & Doering, 2010). Constructivism in addition to the notion of social learning, or else social constructivism is a methodology that increased in credibility by the end of 1990’s at which period a number of research studies insinuated that students learn more meritoriously when engrossed with their world, erect on what they already comprehend, and build on knowledge as lively participants. In backing of the up-and-coming research on active learning, the National Research Council put out a volume written by Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000) How People Learn that joined the evidence. Bransford and associates highlight three circumstances for effectual learning: involving aforementioned understandings, incorporating realistic knowledge with abstract structures, and gaining active hegemony over the learning course (Cummins, 2006).   5.0 a. The Theories And Applications Of Network-Based Learning Technologies (NBLT) In TESOL Downes (2005, 2012) and Siemens (2005, 2006) initially suggested the main psychological principles of Connectivism. They built on the theory from the concept that the prevailing theories on learning were not capable of explaining certain challenging characteristics brought about by web 2.0. These features are primarily: (a) The swift development of knowledge which made knowledge to be a vibrant spectacle and (b) the contemporary kinds of fabrication and externalizations of knowledge, which increase the perceptions, entrenched in knowledge. Downs (2005, 2012) and Siemens (2005, 2006) went ahead and abridged the prevailing theories into three positions. These three positions are cognitivist, constructivism and behaviorism. Downs (2005, 2012) and Siemens (2005, 2006) made the supposition that these three viewpoints shared two core attributes which were that knowledge inhabits individuals coupled with that knowledge is whatsoever that individuals fashion or appropriate. They furthermore went ahead and argued that, the two attributes were nonetheless discordant with the attributes of knowledge in web 2.0. according to them, the dynamism o knowledge in web 2.0 was contradictory with the prevailing theories and the diversity of viewpoints. As a result of this reasoning Downs (2005, 2012) and Siemens (2005, 2006) then went ahead and proposed a new theory on the tag line of connectivism which can essentially be summarized by two core ideas that react to what they refer to as the explanatory challenges of learning in web 2.0. b. The Employment Of NBLT As A Resource For Research And Teaching Network-Based Language Teaching (NBLT, Warschauer and Kern, 2000) encompasses the usage of communication links in foreign language education (FLE). Telecollaboration in this context is a category of NBLT which centers on the utilization of universally-configured networks for the rationales of dialectal learning and cross-cultural consciousness (Warschauer, 1996a). Stereotypically, learners interact with participants of the speech society under study employing a number of internet communication apparatuses like email and as well as video-conferencing. Both researchers and experts have been animated concerning the circumstances in which NBLT may possibly help language learners in addition to the comparative rifeness that this type of learning may well adopt in the following years. Tella (1996, p. 7), states that for instance, suppositions that global electronic keypals will eventually transpire a spontaneous prerequisite for foreign language studies. Notwithstanding the excitement for NBLT, studies in this area have been inadequate (Kern & Warschauer, 2000 p. 14). Inquiries have underlined (1) pedagogical characteristics of the incorporation of technology into core curriculum of language as well as culture (Warschauer, 1995); second, phonological characteristics of online communication (e.g. Kern 1995); and lastly, the motivational advantages of computer usage (Warschauer 1996b). Scholars have not satisfactorily reconnoitered NBLT from a sociocultural context (Chapelle, 2000 p. 217). (c.) The Major Components of Web 2.0 Technologies Social software has developed as a key element of the Web 2.0 faction. The conception is from as far-off back as the 1960s in addition to JCR Licklider’s views on utilizing schmoozed computing to link individuals for the purpose of boosting their knowhow and their capability to learn. The Internet technologies of the succeeding generation have been very much social, as Usenet groups, groupware, listservs, discussion software, and Web-based communities have inter connected individuals all over the globe. At some point in the previous few years, a cluster of Web ventures and services turned out to be perceived as more than ever connective, receiving the grading of “social software”:, wikis, podcasting, among others, and adequate social networking apparatuses in the form of MySpace and Facebook to contribute rise to an abridgement contemptuous of their very popularity: YASN (Yet Another Social Network) considers the dissimilarities amid these and immobile or database-backed Web pages. Wikis are altogether more or less user variation; CNN’s front page is on the other hand conclusively not. It is spot on the explanation that blogs are Web pages, but then again their reverse- sequential edifice indicates a diverse declamatory rationale than a Web page, which has no fundamental timeliness. That changed rhetoric aided in shaping a diverse audience, the blogging community, with its evolving social exercises of blog rolling, far-reaching hyperlinking, and conversation threads linked however not to pages but to contents inside them. Reading and rummaging this globe is notably diverse from exploring the entire Web world. Nonetheless, social software does not point out a sharp discontinuity with the conventional but then again, somewhat, the measured advent of a novel type of practice (Alexander, 2006). (g) The Potential of Digital Games for Tesol Integration and Deployment in Various Language Learning Environments. Multiplayer internet games shape multifaceted semiotic bionetworks that incorporate game- created texts, player-to-player interactions and association, in addition to associated websites that back in-game play. Examples of online games are the immensely multiplayer over the internet game (MMO) World of Warcraft (WoW), which has a definite responsiveness to its qualities as a backdrop for second language (L2) employment and improvement. A number of researches have labeled the growth-related prospects staged by commercially obtainable gaming settings (Gee, 2003, 2007), their significance as sites of learning development (Steinkuehler, 2008), coupled with their prospective as venues for second language (L2) employment and study (Black, & Sykes, 2009; Thorne & Fischer, 2012). 6.0 MOOCS (MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES) In General Past Present And Future A glimpse into e-learnings growth suggests standpoint on todays MOOC phenomenon, for MOOCs are not a change in themselves nevertheless they are component in a stretched, multifaceted, as well as nuanced transformation course. Sometime ago, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) put out its initial report regarding e-learning, Supporting E-Learning in Higher Education.it was the period whilst e-learning stood on the verge of restructuring higher education. Learning management systems (LMSs), and network bandwidth were turn out to be stout and sufficiently accessible (Arabasz, Pirani, & Fawcett, 2003) to change the notion of module and classroom. E-learning had turned out to be a prevailing element in most of the courses, in addition to this learning applications were no longer restrained to the classroom; institutions were in addition swapping selected classroom sessions with cybernetic sessions or wholly swapping classroom modules with online modules As online courses became numerous, institutions commenced to consider online learning influence on structure and student practical skills (Arabasz, Pirani, & Fawcett, 2003). With time, the trio of apparatuses, access, and connection turned out to be increasingly complex, accessible, and large, making internet learning more practicable to employ into the educational encounter. In the year 2008, about 15 out of a hundred of students stated to have taken a class completely online (EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research., 2012). This however increased to about 46 percent in the year 2013 of the students in the preceding year who had taken a course online (EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2013). Institutions acted in response to student need, giving further online courses. Online degrees in addition to certificate programs were also offered online. ECARs 2013 report on online education, The State of E-Learning in Higher Education: An Eye Toward Growth and Increased Access, makes observations that online courses are ever-present, with now over 80 percent of academic institutions offering a number of courses over the internet in addition to more than half offering a considerable number of courses over the web (Jacqueline Bichsel, 2013). With proficiency came accepting of online learning role played by the institution; currently, the ECAR study accounts extra two-thirds of academic leaders think that online learning is significant to their establishments long-term calculated operation of institutional development and mushroomed access (Jacqueline Bichsel, 2013, p. 6). Technology persists to push online studying and higher education precincts out and wide as computer devices and access to internet swells worldwide, advanced network bandwidth empowers more affluent educational experiences, in addition to the advent of social networking presents greater employment amongst course partakers. This exceptional mounting of the educational experience has charmed substantial attention and has generated substantial debate within the higher education fraternity in relation to the MOOC paradigms. The 2013 NMC Horizon Report classified MOOCs as an expertise probable to come into extensive usage by the end of the year 2014 (New Media Consortium, 2013 p. 11). Three core elements point towards steps forward in that route. The first aspect is the mounting figure of MOOCs, learners who partake of them, in addition to institutions offering them. A good illustration of this is, MOOC provider Coursera started in the 2012 through four institutional collaborations and currently works with about 83 educational institutions across four regions, advancing roughly speaking about 400 free college-level courses to over four million learners from diverse countries all over the globe (Lewin, 2013).Harvard- and MIT’s edX suggests online courses from further 25 edX xConsortium worldwide constituent institutions, comprising MIT, Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley among others. The Open University has started its own program, FutureLearn, with associations from 20 UK in addition to transnational universities and educational bodies. The subsequent factor is the shimmer of MOOC recognition in the formal higher education configures. The earliest upsurge of credit- or degree-e grading MOOCs is in motion. MOOC champion MIT have currently included room for the students to enumerate their MOOCs in admission application. This signifies substantial growth of MOOCs in recent years. Finally, the interest in MOOC in the context of business is growing. Examples of this are Blackboard and Instructure who have currently included a MOOC stage to their LMSs. Investors also are pondering entering into the business as witnessed by the influx of funding into MOOCs like Udacity and Causera (Levy, 2012). 7.0 Reference List Alexander B. 2006. Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/web-20-new-wave-innovation-teaching-and-learning. [Accessed 19 April 14]. Chapelle, C. (2000), Is network-based learning CALL? In: Warschauer, M. and Kern, R. (Eds.), Network-based Language Teaching: Concepts and Practice. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 204–228. Downes, S. (2012). Connectivism and connective knowledge: Essays on meaning and learning networks. Retrieved from http://www.downes.ca/files/books/Connective_Knowledge-19May2012.pdf Gee, J. P. (2005) Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: From the age of mythology to today’s schools. In: Barton, D. and Tusting, K. (eds.), Beyond communities of practice: Language, power, and social context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 214–232. Grimes, S. and Feenberg, A. (2009) Rationalizing play: A critical theory of digital gaming. Information Society, 25: 105–118. Gray, R., & Stockwell, G. (1998). Using computer mediated communication for language and culture acquisition. On-CALL, 12(3). Retrieved July 8, 2003 from http://www.cltr.uq.edu.au/oncall/gray123.html Jacqueline Bichsel, (2013), The State of E-Learning in Higher Education: An Eye Toward Growth and Increased Access, EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research, p. 3. Kern, R. (1995), Restructuring classroom interaction with networked computers: Effects on quantity and characteristics of language production. The Modern Language Journal, 79(4): 457–476. Liu, M., Moore, Z., Graham, L., & Lee, S. (2002). A look at the research on computer-based technology use in second language learning: A review of the literature from 1990-2000. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(3), 250-273. Paul Arabasz, Judith A. Pirani, and Dave Fawcett, (2003) Supporting E-Learning in Higher Education, EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. Roblyer, M.D. & Doering, A.H. (2010). 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(ed.), Directions and prospects for educational linguistics. New York: Springer, 117–136. Thorne, S.L., Black, R. W. and Sykes, J. (2009) Second language use, socialization, and learning in Internet interest communities and online gaming. Modern Language Journal, 93: 802–821. Warschauer, M., & Healey, D. (1998). Computers and language learning: An overview. Language Teaching, 31, 57-71. Warschauer, M. (1995) Virtual Connections. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i, Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center. Warschauer, M. and Kern, R. (2000) Network-Based Language Teaching: Concepts and Practice. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Top of Form Read More