Massive Open Online Course - Report Example

? Massive Open Online delivery format Massive Open Online delivery format A massive open online is a distance-learning program that has a large number of participants. This form of learning is always web based. The large number of participants is mostly geographically dispersed. Massive open online courses are always patterned on a university or college course. Some of the massive online courses are less structured. This kind of learning does not always give academic credits to the learners. Despite the fact that they do not offer academic credits, massive open online courses offer education that can enable the learners to get certification, go for further studies and get employment. This paper aims at discussing the effectiveness of massive open online course in comparison with the face-to-face and online course delivery formats. The face-to-face course delivery format refers to an education process where the learner and the teacher and lecturers have to physically avail themselves at a particular geographical location. This in the oldest form of course delivery. It is also so far the most popular form of education globally. Face –to-face course delivery is commonly associated to lecture hall lectures and laboratory sessions. An online course delivery format is usually done basically through the internet using leaning management systems. The students are led through studies in sessions that arranged to fit into a certain schedule. Online delivery format might involve learning materials such as e-book, DVDs, and CDs that are sent to the students by the institution through the internet (Inoue, 2007). A Massive Open Online Course can be highly economical. This is because all one would need to get going would be a computer and an access to the internet. This means that individual do not have to pay the hefty fees that are charged by the higher leaning institutions (Odin, 2004). This means that this format of course does not have financial discrimination. It is also cheaper because does not have geographical discrimination. In this form of learning the learners would not have to spend heavily on their transportation to the higher learning institutions. This format has time flexibility. This is because the learners can access the tutorial at any time they wish. This makes it more economical because the learner can schedule their learning according to their daily activities. All the three forms of course delivery formats have proved to be convenient in different ways. As compared to face-to-face and online course delivery formats, massive open online course delivery format is less interactive. This is mainly because of the nature of distribution method where there is no provision for questionings, clarifications or feedbacks. This means that despite being economical, this does not allow effective interaction between the tutors and the learners (Richards, 2007). In some cases the sources of these tutorials have eligibility problems. This is because of the mode of delivery involved in the Massive Open Online Course delivery format, which is not trustworthy. With the minimal interaction, the students who go through these programs are likely to be sub-standard. In a case where a learner misunderstands one or two concepts in the tutorial, the resulting information is likely to be highly misleading. This will lead to a scenario where someone is a career full of misconceptions. With the possibility of the production of highly misled persons, this method can be very risky. The other issue is that the Massive Open Online Courses can only be reliable for use in certain type of courses. There are education programs that can never be successfully undertaken through a Massive Open Online Course. These courses require maximum interaction between the tutors and the learners. A good example of such programs is medicine and engineering. It will be impossible for a higher education institution to produce highly qualified doctors and engineers through the massive open online course delivery format. This is because the above courses require a lot of keen guidance from the tutors. The courses are also highly dependent on the interaction between the tutors and the learners for the sake of perfection. With this reason, it is clearly evident that massive open online course delivery format cannot completely serve every educational program in higher learning institutions (Fraser, 2004). Massive Open Online Courses are never gives academic credits. This means that the learners in this system do not have anything to prove their qualification in their careers. People who undertake these programs have a hard time in their job pursuit endeavors. Without a document proving some one’s qualification, proving your educational status would not be an easy task. Since there are no academic credits, it will be very easy for the involved higher education institutions to deny being involved in your education process. This will mean that one will only have their knowledge to prove that they went through the higher education process. This will not be possible unless you are given a chance to prove it. The chance is likely not to come about especially with the high competition from the certified peers (Fraser, 2004). However, a combined use of these three course delivery formats can highly be beneficial to higher learning institutions. This can be possible through the categorization of the courses that the higher education institution offers. This categorization should be done in terms of the mode of delivery that the courses can work well with. The institutions are likely to get courses that might do with all the three formats of course delivery. Through the categorization the institutions are likely to minimize on the economic cost of delivery and at the same time keeping a watch on the quality of services that they offer to their clients (Fraser, 2004). This is likely to highly benefit all the aspects of institutional growth. Higher education institutions should consider offering of common units through a massive open online course delivery format. Common units are the courses that all the students in higher learning institutions are supposed to take regardless of their careers. Most of these courses are always aimed at improving the students’ life skills. With these courses being offered through a massive open online course delivery format, the institutions are likely to spend less economical resources in offering these units (Inoue, 2007). This is also meant to ensure that minimal time is allocated to the units. Giving these units through this delivery format will enable the students to access the contents of these courses at their own convenient time. A close monitoring of the learner that makes use of the sites meant for massive open online course delivery system might also be necessary. This is mainly for quality purposes. This can be possible by making sure that every person that is allowed to login to these sites is registered. This will make sure that there is no unnecessary duplication of the contents (Odin, 2004). It will also enable the learning institutions to be aware of the people who have been making use of their online materials. They will also be able to know exactly what materials the learners have been accessing. This might help them in considering whether or not to offers exams to the learners. It will also reduce the possibility of misuse of the contents of their courses by the public. It is clearly evident that using massive open online course delivery format has various advantages. The number of shortcomings that this course delivery format has can also not be ignored. The advantages might be that is economic, time saving, and flexible. On the other hand, the fact that it is less interactive is the major shortcoming that this format of course delivery has. This makes s it highly ineffective. It would be impossible for this form of course delivery to completely replace the face-to-face and online course delivery formats. Reason behind this is that there is a big number of courses that cannot be offered through this format. This is definitely the reason as to why it is less popular. References Inoue, Y. (2007). Technology and diversity in higher education: New challenges. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publications. Odin, J. K. (2004). Globalization and higher education. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. Richards, P. B. (2007). Global issues in higher education. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Fraser, K. (2004). Education development and leadership in higher education: Kym Fraser. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Read More