Ship of Fools: Done any good MOOCs lately?

Thread: Done any good MOOCs lately? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

I'd heard about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) but no more than that; but now I'm a convert.

A friend has just pointed me to a French one on understanding the French justice system and I'm hooked! This is a subject that's of interest to me for lots of reasons and the lecturer is very good.

It reckons a total of three and a half hours per week and best of all, it's completely free (having had some experience of putting together classes and worse still, test questions, I find this amazing. Even compiling a multiple-choice questionnaire is very time consuming if it is to be any good).

What are your experiences of MOOCs? What are you favourite subjects, experiences of keeping on with the course, or wider views on what the future of MOOCs might be? There's so much knowledge out there I haven't acquired yet!

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

I was sitting next to one of the proponents, Professor Jonathan Bate*, at the recording of a BBC debate recently and really fancied his course at Future Learn - I also found a GCSE ICT MOOC recently too.

The BBC debate is the final programme of three entitled My Teacher is an App discussing how the IT revolution will affect education which starts on Radio 4 on Monday night. The way the audience was seated, people they wanted to talk were on the ends of rows in a specific order. Professor Bate was on the end of the row, next to me, with other OU people opposite, and Professor Mary Beard, who is against MOOCs was in front of us.

You'll have to listen to the debate, but one of the reasons that the traditional universities were against them was that you don't get proper debate or community online. I was spluttering a bit, which was why I got chatting to the OU guys afterwards.

Posted by Ian Climacus (# 944) on :

My first MOOC was Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets [which starts again tomorrow] and it got me addicted -- I can highly and heartily recommend that one.

Since then I have done astronomy, data analysis [my working area], history, statistics, logic & reasoning...and am currently doing ScandinavianFilm & TV. Generally things which interest me or I'd like to learn.

On CK's comments on proper discussions, ADLS perhaps led me astray as great discussions were had there; several courses after that disintegrated into name calling, I-know-more-'cause-I'm-an-expert and some nasty religious arguments [even one on a programming course!] But a well moderated and informed and eager audience can lead to great, and humorous, discussions.

I think they will continue to grow as a way of unis and other educational institutions getting their name and brand out there in the world. Coursera offers 'verified certificates [at a cost] which some take up which may bring some income. I am still bemused by the obsession many have with getting free MOOC certificates...I'm happy to try but some people seem to consider it the be all and end all and get very obsessive about collecting them.

Posted by kaytee (# 3482) on :

I'm just finishing Modern European Mysticism and Psychological Thought which has been really good, well structured and not required too much time or prior knowledge.

I've signed up for several MOOCS before and not got very far. Drugs and the Brain, for example, got very technical very quickly. I have science A levels, but it was very challenging and required more hard work than I was prepared for.

I'm also currently signed up for one called Soul Beliefs, which is very unstructured, and I'm not so keen on the lecture style, but I may go back and watch some of the lectures when I have time.

I'm also signed up for one about Buddhism and Psychology which starts in March. It has an experiential element, apparently, which should be interesting.

MOOCS are a mixed bag, but when they're free, we really have nothing to lose!

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I notice they say you get "peer-graded assessments" - how does that work?

Posted by kaytee (# 3482) on :

If you submit an assignment by the deadline, you get to see four of your peers' assignments to grade. The course team give us a marking scheme and a model answer. A student's score is calculated as the average given by their peers. We can also give comments on what was good and what could be better. If you don't do the peer assessments there is a penalty deducted from your own mark.

I like getting to see other people's answers, it helps my understanding.

Some people complain about the marking as it can be quite variable and subjective. Perhaps some students didn't understand the material well themselves so struggle with grading another's work. They may not have a lot of time to spend on it. It can be hard to grade an essay where it appears that English is not the student's first language. Some people always give full marks regardless. Some people give no comments to explain the score they award... etc.

I say take the score with a pinch of salt, it's not like these courses really count for anything. In general it appears that better essays do get better marks. For me, the process of evaluating is helpful in itself as it makes me think more about the subject.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by kaytee:
I say take the score with a pinch of salt, it's not like these courses really count for anything.

Thanks for the explanation, kaytee. I did wonder. It does seem like a lot of commitment and extra effort, though, if the courses don't really count for anything; looking at the website it sounds as if you couldn't use them to count towards part of a degree course somewhere and that they're really just for interest. That's fine, but I wouldn't expect to have to do classwork if they didn't lead to anything.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

The problem with the traditional university point of view, as put by Professor Mary Beard and her students, was that online debate is not worth having and online communities weren't communities, and certainly don't compare to the cosy tutorials at Cambridge. Having seen the debate on Purgatory here and knowing about the community on here, I thought they were being dismissive, but Ian Climacus has said that the online discussions can be a bit variable.

Posted by kaytee (# 3482) on :

The advantage of doing coursework is that it helps you understand the subject. It's not compulsory, though, you can just watch the video lectures if you want.

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

I've done a couple with Futurelearn via the OU newsletter - currently looking at drugs and addiction.

Posted by ecumaniac (# 376) on :

I'm doing intro to finance with coursera. Also signed up to Financial Markets, but haven't started watching the videos yet.

Posted by chive (# 208) on :

I'm quite addicted to MOOCs and tend to sign up to them one after another on any random subject that I find interesting. I've just finished one on Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World which was incredibly hard work but fascinating and challenging. I'm now starting one on US Immigration and after that I think I'm doing one on the Emergence of the Modern Middle East. I may be an addict.

I find the peer graded assignments excellent. Both writing an essay and marking other peoples helps you learn a lot and I like the fact that they have relatively high expectations of what you produce so it's a challenge much more than a multiple choice type quiz.

I don't do them for any particular reason except that I have an endlessly curious mind and I like to know things. Also I think my mind would collapse into a pile of decrepitude if I didn't attempt the occasional intelligent thing.

I think they're great value for (no) money.

Posted by Gussie (# 12271) on :

This thread has made me go and look at FutureLearn, which I'd been meaning to do for a while, and I've just signed up for the course on How to Read a Mind which is a subject I didn't know you could do a course on!

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

The course I'm doing is multiple-choice scored only. I haven't investigated the discussion forum yet. Mrs. E. is also doing it and I've realised that having an in-house study group (ie someone else around to discuss various aspects) definitely enhances the experience compared to what it must be like going it alone.

Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :

I love Coursera...my problem is that all the courses I'm interested in seem to run at the same time, and I just can't keep up with the coursework (such as it is).

It's true that the online discussions often leave something to be desired...but really, for an autodidact, they're better than nothing at all; better than reading the material on one's own with no one to discuss it with. And I'm in awe of people for whom English is not a first language, who are nonetheless so articulate and enthusiastic about commenting.

They're not MOOCs, but I do enjoy the interactive formats/fairly instant gratification of Duolingo and Code Academy, even though the former isn't really a substitute for a real language course, and I'm not sure that at my age and stage I need to bother learning to code.

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :

I'm interested in the FutureLearn's course, "Muslims in Britain" but wonder if I will be lost because I'm living in the U.S.A. I wish there was a similar course for understanding Muslims living here.

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
...the traditional universities were against them...

Not all traditional universities are against MOOCs - Birmingham has a growing selection of courses available.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
...the traditional universities were against them...
Not all traditional universities are against MOOCs - Birmingham has a growing selection of courses available.

Depends what one means by "Traditional universities". Could be Oxbridge + St. Andrews, anything before the polytechnics became universities or anything in between.

Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on :

Thanks for this thread, I think a MOOC might be just what I need to give me a bit of a boost at the moment. I just signed up for Practicing Tolerance in a Religious Society: The Church and the Jews in Italy

I have not tried Coursera before so I will let you know if it is any good. I did do the Futurelearn course on Richard III but it was not particularly taxing...fun though.

Posted by chive (# 208) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The5thMary:
I'm interested in the FutureLearn's course, "Muslims in Britain" but wonder if I will be lost because I'm living in the U.S.A. I wish there was a similar course for understanding Muslims living here.

I did most of a course with FutureLearn then at the beginning of the last week I got an email saying if I paid £149 and attended a test centre I could gain a certificate which annoyed me in an ostensibly free course.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

Well there of course you put your finger on a problem common to much new technology: how to monetise it. I suspect they will build up a big fanbase and then charge for some courses. Frankly I'd be willing to pay a bit if the course really interested me, as this one does.

The course I'm doing is by a fully-fledged Paris university.

Posted by Late Paul (# 37) on :

I'm currently doing a Coursera course on Android app development. I previously started a C++ one but started it late thinking I could catch up and didn't. I plan to take it again if/when they re-run it.

It's an interesting experience. Having worked in IT for a couple of decades I'm used to commercial training courses on topics like this. Whereas these are essentially University courses done via video and online interaction. Which means the lectures cover the main points of the topic but don't necessarily give you all the detail to complete the exercises. In a training course this would be considered bad but here the idea is that self-study (in this case trying to read and understand developer.android.com) is expected.

We also had a bit of a kerfuffle on our course as the forums are full of people asking very specific questions and you're not supposed to post full working solutions (or even really working snippets). A guy was making companion Youtube videos based on the exercises and the course staff asked him to stop as they were basically walk-throughs. He took them down but has relaunched them with a little less detail (but not much).

As ever, I'm amazed at how entitled people who have paid no money feel and how free they are with their criticism.

Of course we get reminders on nearly every webpage that we can sign up to the "signature track" - which costs money but gets you a certificate - but that's OK IMO. It doesn't get brought up in the lectures themselves and tbh the price of free stuff in the internet age is having to ignore some advertising.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
...the traditional universities were against them...
Not all traditional universities are against MOOCs - Birmingham has a growing selection of courses available.

Marvin - this was in the context of the debate that goes out on Monday 10 March - I know a lot of universities are involved in MOOCs, but the person who was being very anti- in the debate was Professor Mary Beard and her students, and she's a classics lecturer at Cambridge.

Talking to the Future Learn guys, there are some universities working with them but Oxbridge definitely aren't, along with some others.

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