Massive Open Online Courses: disruptive innovations or
disturbing inventions?
The Distance Instructor
Keys to Learner's Success
Reflection/Reaction
The Distance Leaner
The distance education in these institutes is characterized by open access in the sense that they do not require a specific start qualification, but most of the open universities (or institutions of higher education with a distance department) ask for some kind of financial contribution Coursera, Udacity(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 218).
Institutions put in a great deal of effort to bring their students up to the level required by the formal qualifications. MOOCs and OER do not provide an alternative for formal education(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 223)
The university brand is a surrogate for teaching quality … The so called elite universities that are rushing into xMOOCs gained their reputations in research(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 219)
Employee recruitment (companies pay for access to student performance records, Coursera, Udacity(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 220)
Yet both commercial reasons (some professors take their own books as required or advised readings) and non-monetary or reputational gain seem motives to participate(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 221)
‘the teaching methods used by most of the Coursera courses so far are based on a very old and outdated behaviorist pedagogy, relying primarily on information transmission, computer marked assignments and peer assessment(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 219)
In some cases, MOOCs set a higher standard of quality. This should encourage teachers within programs to increase their efforts.(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 224)
These courses challenge students to look for their own sources, to write papers and to discuss these with other students. Most courses described as xMOOCs can be best described as well-performed lectures, using a broad array of supplementary presentation techniques(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 219)
Most MOOCs work well for students who are self-motivated and already well educated. Worldwide, the poorest students still don’t have the background (or the Internet bandwidth) to participate in a major way(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 219-220)
Certification (students pay for a badge or certificate, almost all MOOC platforms)Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 220
The public good motive will draw additional income in the form of subsidies, whereas the marketing effect of MOOCs will draw students towards the brick-and-mortar university.(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 224
The efficiency motive depends on the way the MOOC is used again in the students’ own education and the amount of additional efforts it took to develop the MOOC(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 221.
Secure assessments (students pay to have their examinations invigilated [proctored], Coursera(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 220)
Students most welcome an alternative for attending lectures and socializing with other students does not take much priority(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 217)
Human tutoring or assignment marking (for which students pay, Coursera)Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 220
peer discussions are encouraged and sometimes teachers offer the possibility to chat with the participants(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 220)
This is also given as a reason why MOOCs have become popular in recent months: they offer more possibilities to increase quality, an observation that will not be shared by everyone commenting on MOOCs(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 218)
a major promise of OER is that the creation and refinement of both learning content and the underlying pedagogical approaches can benefit from the distributed co-creation model enabled by open licences(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 223)
Do enlarge the amount of individuals who have access to educational materials but not to degree awarding institutions; and in their present form are replicas of traditional lectures without the possibilities for active tutoring(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 224)
Distance learning materials as MOOCs can be used as instruments to put ‘drill-and-practice’ exercises online, creating time in the classroom for more active learning forms such as discussion and learning conversations, between teachers and students or among students(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 224)
Non-formal learning, workplace learning and other non-degree educational programmes will be influenced when the supply of MOOCs is enlarged(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 223)
Open learning as provided for by the Open Universities is an alternative for traditional education, at least in form and pedagogy(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 223)
Once you imagine educating a thousand people in a single class, it becomes clear that open courses, even in their nascent state, will be able to raise quality and improve certification faster than traditional institutions can lower cost or increase enrollment.(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 223)
they offer more possibilities to increase quality, an observation that will not be shared by everyone commenting on MOOCs(Langen & Bosch, 2013, p. 218)
In reflection to this article, geography has to be taken into consideration. Being that MOOC's within this reading are considered to be disruptive innovations vs. disturbing inventions should be taken into account. institutions might argue it to be disruptive because, original courses that reside on main campuses is how the institutions make their money.. In addition, it helps to credit the university by creating departments and employing staff members to teach learners. .Creating online courses can make learning more convenient and efficient but, eventually this trend could make smaller institutions obsolete.Depending on which part of the world you live, this can be considered " a blessing" because it helps to create jobs and contributes to the country's economy for security and development. Plus, internet still is not available every where in the world. On the flip side. you could argue MOOCs to be a disturbing invention because, it turns the argument of "moving with the times". A lot of institutions that have been operating for years teach conventional learning or learning within a "brick and mortar" building. Classes that are now being created for instruction that you would not find at a "brick and mortar" location can be found online at cites like "Coursera"etc. This would be considered disturbing to an institution that now, has to compete and offer that course online which requires training the instructor on how run it and so forth. This creates a lot of unwanted competition that the brick and mortar institution now has to contend with.