Online Education - Research Paper Example

the biggest segment of online education is covered by massive open online courses that provide people from all over the world with free and sometimes pre-paid online courses on multiple disciplines. These courses are collections of particular courses, previously learned by students of different universities (Mayadas, Bourne, and Bacsich 85). The professors who taught them in the universities also work for the massive open online courses’ services and read the lectures for everyone who signs up for their courses online.

Massive open online courses (MOOC) are internet classes with large-scale interactive participation and public access through the Internet, so learning content is available online to any person who wants to take a course with no limit on attendance. They are structured similar to traditional higher education courses (Martin 26), in which students watch lectures, read assigned material, participate in online discussions and forums and complete quizzes and tests on the course material. Nevertheless, MOOCs try to make the online education more effective than the traditional class room methods (Kolukuluri n. pag). Further claims have been made that short videos complement the optimal attention span of students and that discussion forums provide an adequate replacement of direct teacher–student interactions, which would be considered as normal for a class delivered on campus (Glance 5).

MOOCs are typically provided by higher education institutions, often in partnership with “organizers” such as Coursera, edX and Udacity, though some MOOCs are being offered directly by college or university (as Stanford does). The MOOCs’ constructions are rather similar from source to source, but let’s consider the structure of Coursera courses as an example. In the description of each course the level of required previous knowledge for its successful mastering is indicated. Many courses are available for the beginners, while other courses require the