To my opinion, MOOCs (Coursera as an example) are the excellent addition and extension to traditional class-based and e-learning trainings. It's worth for busy people, students in far away regions, students which need cheap or free of charge trainings. But student MUST be well-organised and self-motivated.

As per my view, it will not affect the education industry as long as the concerned institutions adapt to the culture of modern learning and update the standards in terms of high tech infrastructure and quality faculty members. For instance, the arrival of digital books didn't destroy the concept of library! 

@Charles, I partially agree. Bear in mind that digital books closed many paper publishing sites. Moreover, your solution eventually is now being considered in developed countries as they have enough fund ad resources. However, in developing countries the story is a bit different. Can we say that 'Coursera' is a replacement for medium level universities in the world? 

I agree that online courses did not have physical involvements and it is one of the diversion from the normal education system. It may be benificial to some limited group of people who can't attend the regular classes. I don't think it should be encourage as a replacement to regular classroom system...

Thanks Ratan, I do agree it should not replace classrooms. However, I believe that in a close future material and pedagogical strategies being used in 'Coursera' will be more efficient than what many universities use in that time.     

To my opinion, MOOCs (Coursera as an example) are the excellent addition and extension to traditional class-based and e-learning trainings. It's worth for busy people, students in far away regions, students which need cheap or free of charge trainings. But student MUST be well-organised and self-motivated.

Concerning affecting educational businesses in developed and developing countries.- I don' think so. In fact only 5 % of participants finish such courses. But they are very interesting and useful, but they can be used in addition to classical education. As for me I started one coursera course and unfortunately did not finish it. (Did not do the task in time). As for our students - they did and got certificates. It is a good way to practice English (for foreigners, for those who study English as a second language). 

@Danil, I agree MOOCs is an example of an effective tool for enhance learning. However, without a physical classroom it is difficult to ask students to be well-organised. Students have different abilities, self-motivating being one of them.

@Natalja, I agree. I have enrolled in six courses, and only got one certificate for the same reasons. More interesting, I enrolled in courses that I consider myself as an expert. Maybe that was a reason why courses could not engage us, but they engaged students. My concern is more about future, in which point the system identifies us as experts and provides less but more challenging problems. 

I took 3 courses in my area of expertise and successfully finished all, and also i took a course in world history just for pleasure as a hobby.

In the gamification course the participants created group in FB, and we communicate in it for more than a year after course completion.

Have you ever thought that our classes might not be as effective as courses in Coursera. Just imagine there are a team behind instructional design, and projects and assignments sometimes are very impressive. They have a very strong forum, and I doubt that our students don't use Coursera forum to tackle their assignments.  

The question is: "What does 'affect' mean for you?" I would say the fact that we discuss your questions shows that MOOCs (by Coursera, edX, Futurelearn...) affect the educational system. It's kind of rethinking our traditional teaching and learning methods and opening for new ways of learning without giving up the traditional way of teaching and learning. MOOCs are - as some colleagues have already stated - a good way to enrich the traditional educational system, a way to help people pursue a life long learning process. It's also a good way to specialize, to build up an international network. But it's not the panacea for the educational system's problems.

@Danil, I agree when you say that MOOCs can be an excellent extension to traditional classroom based teaching/training. Some of the courses on MOOC could be used as foundation courses for certain advanced courses that we teach. But as Danil mentions,  those of us who have taken up courses on Coursera can tell, it requires a student to be disciplined and self driven. 

Traditional teaching has evolved over the years and will continue to do so. It is a challenge for each of us to ensure that we are in tune with the times and design assignments/projects that are innovative and help students to collaborate and use online sources to their advantage.

I believe that MOOCs can be used for blended learning and can enrich the overall learning experience. 

@Neetu: You're absolutely right when you say that MOOCs can be used for blended learning. They are a great resource for a flipped or inverted classroom experience, too.

Yes, because there are people who give up from formal education because they can educate themselves with non formal education...MOOCs etc., and there are people who learn also with MOOCs but continue formal education, there are people who are older and they do not think to go back to the University, but they can still learn and study on-line. Definitely yes and always more and more.

I have taken several MOOCs and I've seen excellent ones and others that were so shallow, that they weren't worth the time you had to spend. However, I think we will find more and more excellent ones as teachers are getting more experienced in producing them. As has been said before, they are excellent for self-study but you need discipline.

MOOC's rely a lot on peer review for the scoring and this is a problem. While I do believe that peer review is as very useful tool, you might get two peers who didn't work very hard and therefore cannot give helpful comments. On the other hand, if you have the discipline to go through a course, it's quite easy to pass and even to pass with distinction, because you can look at your notes when you do the tests and you can repeat the tests until you get 100%. This again is a good feature for self-study, because I can see where I was wrong, look things up, and try again until I get everything correct. But  for getting credits, this is a problem, because you can find the answers without really learning and how does anybody know that it was you who clicked the box that your assignment was done by yourself? It's an honor-based system. So it's easy to cheat and it solely depends on you what you are doing.

As a consequence, while I will surely take some more MOOCs, because they can be very rewarding, I don't think that they should be used instead of an accredited course, because cheating is too easy. They are a better fit for students who are motivated to learn something and their main influence may lie in getting 'traditional teachers' rethink their way of teaching. 

Amir - do you have any evidence to support your claim that "As we know online courses has never been as effective as physical classes, which relies on individualised attention that a lecturer paid to each student in a real classroom"?.  I am not disputing that what you say might be the case - but it is always good to support claims. Cheers, Kevin.

Having taking courses through edX and Coursera with good results, I can say 'grades' and 'marks' are not what I am after. I want to find out what the learning experiences are for independent learners. Personally I see the excitement and benefits of learning through MOOC, this includes ‘attending’ courses offered by worldwide professors who serve in renounced institution, interacting with global learners with diverse working and learning experiences, learning professional practices through learners from different countries.

Surely it requires motivation when one commits to take personal time to learn. You can do the minimum, i.e. typically doing quizzes, written assignment and peer evaluation. You are highly encouraged to make use of the forum  to discuss further and deepen your understanding. As international learners with diverse background experiences join in a MOOC, forum discussion can become a rich source for knowledge sharing, development and creation in additional to the course materials (videos and reading materials).

Over nearly two decades, I have not seen learners studying in traditional courses going in depth in forum discussion voluntarily. Does it have an impact on educational business? The learning experience through MOOC cannot be replicated in traditional courses. However, as universities promote graduates building competence as life-long learners, having students taking some MOOCs will facilitate them to develop the key graduate attribute.

Paula - you're right. For us, grades and marks are not important. We take the courses because we are interested in learning the subjects and probably do not have the opportunity to take such a course at an institution close by that we can attend. We also might not have the time to attend the course due to our work. So MOOC's are an excellent option for people who are motivated enough to take the courses. But Amir's question was about the influence of MOOC's on the educational industry and there I see shortcomings because how do you proof that the person taking the tests and doing the assignments is the person that has signed up for the course? We probably will have test centers in a few years where you can take tests to show that you have mastered the materials taught in a MOOC. And that might then influence the educational industry, as you could take all the courses necessary from a prestigious university and in the end go to that university to take your final exam. But how many students will have the motivation to do that? Distance  education has been around for several decades already. However, they did not have a big influence on the educational industry. I myself believe that a blended learning approach works best for my students but that most of them would get lost in a solely online learning situation. 

Thanks Kevin - That's right, I just changed the description. In face, I'm not sure that physical classrooms have always been more effective than online courses. Some evidence is required.

Daphne Koller, one of the founders of Coursera claimed to make courses free for anyone who is interested in learning despite of that there are people who cannot afford it. Here are the opportunities for anyone who wants to learn with an internet connected device. He/she has to pay the cost of the internet fee ONLY. I care about if people have opportunities to learn and MOOC is truly an open platform for learning. Personally,  I do not take MOOCs for qualifications and I do not care those who want to cheat.

Amir - I don't see how you want to individualize courses with thousands of participants. Even if many drop the course before the end, it can never be as individualized as a f2f class. So they will always rely on peer feedback and only few questions will be answered by staff. So I agree with Paula Hodgson, that these courses are more for people who want to learn something about the topic.

Even if one of my students would show me a verified certificate (which costs money) to show me that he/she has taken a particular course, I would not accept this as an equivalent to a course taken at whatsoever institution as it is easy to cheat and totally honor-based. This student would still need to proof that he/she has mastered the content of my course. Testing centers all over the world would be needed to issue meaningful certificates which would be costly to maintain. And then, the courses would not be free anymore. So I think MOOCs will be more something like an addition to a normal classroom. Students might take a class where they think they need more knowledge than what their school provides them. But these students really need to be motivated.

I'm looking for a topic for my master thesis which concerned with the modern  ways of teaching online , Do you advise me studied this new trend ?!

I can see the effect on education industry. If universities award credit, and they should, for online courses, it may have an impact on the number of students enrolling in traditional classes.

@ Beate - There is no doubt that you can individualised feedback messages and pedagogical strategies to students' knowledge and behaviour. That's why we use user models and student models in our intelligent systems. I refer you to our last paper published in User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP).  

I do agree with Paula Hodgson as the main motivation in these courses is learning. Specifically in the field of computer science you need to update yourself every day.

To all- If you remember the first course provided on Coursera platform was "An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI)" by Stanford University. I remember that there were many system engineers who took this course just because they were interested in this topic. Sadly many of these people later on claimed that they are AI experts. However, you need to pass several courses with universities standards in AI to call yourself an expert. Let me claim that Coursera causes Illusion of Understanding because of a low level of assessments and a possibility of cheating.

MOOCs attract learners with diverse backgrounds including culture, language, educational levels, professional practices, prior learning experiences and working experiences. I am sure learners may gain in concepts and a better understanding through various types of interactions (with course materials and global learners) in the courses. Personally I believe that certification is only a symbolical artefact (British English)/artifact (American English) that reflects individuals have experienced over the four, six to eight weeks on a topic through the mode of online learning with global learners.

As we are living in an ever changing world, technology has brought us a different learning experience that enables us to build and extend life-long learning skill with wider broadening global perspectives that traditional courses cannot offer.

MOOCs (finished with certificates) can significantly influence these areas of education where practical knowledge and experience is more important than formal education with diploma - see some IT or novel technologies specialists. MOOCs can help choice directions of further professio al development - there are free, quicker and not time-consuming. It seems many of MOOCs graduates will take part in traditional courses or studies - power of diploma is still huge, especially when you want achieve higher/managing positions. Its obvious some managing positions require MSc, PhD or MBA diploma. Is there a chance for MOOCs to affer e.g. MSc or  PhD?

Dear All,

I have no experience regarding on line education business. Can anybody offer and share his/her knowledge and experience on the efficiency and successfulness of this kind of business compared with traditional education?

I note am a teacher and not a businessman or administrator.

An interesting article:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/20/moocs-global-thirst-education

Online platforms are, in most cases, just great complement for f2f traditional education. There are losts of efforts behind platforms but, as all of us know, there exists not a perfect course en either of the alluded two ways. f2f education has the advantage of exchanging ideas and experiences of the students' real world because of the human touch and confidence the instructor inspires in f2f environment. A f2f disadvantage is that instructors are far from dominating ICTs.  And, as you suppouse, viceversa.

Dear Andras,

you may watch my brief presentation at http://i-mokymas.com/free-services/video-recordings/hot-training-webinar-on-modern-learning-methods/, and also presentations and articles in my RG profile.

i'll be happy to answer any your questions.

Hello,

I think the medium term will affect education in general in a way that we can not even envision. My daughter already prefer reading digital books than physical. The new generations have been increasingly susceptible to technology-mediated learning. I think what awaits us in the future will be a hybrid of the two forms (physical and technologically mediated lessons). Some courses are already fully data in virtual environments. I just completed a master's degree in management of public education in the hybrid format in which I spoke above which considered one of the most useful I've ever done. I am a technology enthusiast but I'm also a lover of human face to face interactions. In fact, I believe that online platforms are now, not only are affecting how they are changing the way of offering education. I think this is going to delve into all levels of education. Here in Brazil the distance courses (online platforms) has had a very large increase (today the country has around one million students in this mode, higher education) and student performance on tests of large-scale government has shown that the performance of students in online courses has had equal or better performance than students in traditional courses.

See you later,

S.

I believe that in terms of on-line education, MOOCs are still in its infancy but its future developments are very promising. Yes, there is many issues with on-line courses and these issues are specific to the nature of the courses, the technology used, and the experience and knowledge of the instructor of the course. Not all issues are common and this is something that more people need to realize.

Yes, I do believe that on-line courses will affect educational businesses in developed and developing countries but it is still too early so see exactly how. 

Technology has an important impact on online education.  Online education cannot replace physical presence but it is a solution for people who are working and they cannot be present in the classrooms. Online education impacts industry by improving skills through the training.

i agree with Mounir, but in special cases - for example for people with limited possibilities - online training may replace the traditional one as for training itself and as a communication tool with classmates all around the world as well.

E-training courses allow the flexibility to combine training and professional activities. Participants may access the eTraining platform from anywhere in the world through the internet. 

The training materials can be developed using the learning techniques and are supported by illustrations, case studies and self-assessment exercises.

The eTraining platform offers interactive tools to enhance the learning experience. Participants may discuss  issues to the course in the Forum and submit queries on related issues to the tutor. The internal email system enables participants to communicate directly with their Tutor, Course Administrator, Help Desk and among themselves.

I think the future education is online. Teachers'll reach students around the world and the students will be the best teachers avalaible. But the teaching philosophy will have to change, and the skills and the tools's teacher too.

We are actually working in MOOC about Creative Teaching, that's the introduction video (soon with english subtitles)

vimeo.com/99474551

Dear Amir, the embedd blog post discusses a 12-dimensional classification scheme for MOOCs that may guide one's thoughts about their use/impact.

It concludes that a number of drivers impact on education, for instance, the trend that universities want to enhance their online presence and  effectively incorporate technology in education. Students further are becomimg more diverse and there is an increased need for  higher education. Universities also need to prepare their students for a changing and complex society and investigate new niches and business models.

According this post, MOOCs provide an example of how technologies can disrupt education and  they may lead to further changes in this environment. The final impact of MOOCs is not yet clear, as is evident from our discussion.  It appears that the main value of MOOCs lies in challenging traditional educational institutions to consider what they are offering, what is unique about it and how what they offer contribute to students' learning experiences.

http://e4innovation.com/?p=799

 Caro Mounir Belloumi,

I am a technology enthusiast and online learning systems. But I'm also an enthusiastic and aprecidador of human interactions. I think the future of education (at all levels) will be largely linked to the development of teaching and learning systems mediated by technology. But I think we have to take care not to lose the processes of human interaction (face to face) in the educational process. So, I think that the ideal system thinking in terms of the future is a hybrid system combining technological mediation processes and face to face interaction. But I have a confession: I'm afraid that we lose more and more processes interacting face to face in the future and have educational learning systems without this factor. It behooves us to model the best ways for the future and fight for them.

See you later, 

S.

I introduce you two links about the question. The first one in spanish, and the other one in english: 

http://innovacionaudiovisual.com/2014/09/09/la-universidad-de-tus-hijos-con-y-sin-branded-content/

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21605906-cost-crisis-changing-labour-markets-and-new-technology-will-turn-old-instit

http://innovacionaudiovisual.com/2014/09/09/la-universidad-de-tus-hijos-con-y-sin-branded-content/

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21605906-cost-crisis-changing-labour-markets-and-new-technology-will-turn-old-institution-its

Dear Amir,

Thanks for raising this interesting and important question. I am afraid that the idea of MOOCs is (1) some kind of a shadow of the increasing power of the financial perspectives in running higher education and (2) a logical development of technology based learning in (3) a world with changing time perceptions, time management and forms of competence building and development. "COURSERA" or other US and British online courses may be interesting for those earning credentials at lower cost, but even more for those who teach in higher education and who are interested in designing a multi-level course interaction (if their topic fits): Take for example the HarvardX course on China, a brilliant course, which might be introduced - in sections - to your students as part of your own course on modernization in Asia or on Chinese history. This year I spent weeks to screen various courses, themes ranging from inequality and justice to development and modernízation, and I came across the most wonderful course material - material, which I would not be able to produce within my own university. But I can use the availability of this service to enrich my own teaching and increase students´ interest - hopefully. The price I have to pay for that is: Less time to publish, but it seems to be worth.

Stanford Online is providing MOOC on MOOCS named OKMOOC.

It's very valuable course with interesting internal discussions, even between trainers inside it)).

Dear Amir,

In addition to my previous comment I like to draw readers´ attention to an article on future developments in higher education:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrydoss/2014/07/31/innovation-should-be-mandatory-in-higher-education/

The comment offered mirrors my reference to the economic implication of online courses and I have to admit that I am increasingly sceptical about any evaluation of "universities" - an institution which should at least offer glimpses of enlightenment outside financial justifications -, dominantly based on economic terms of efficiency.

But this view is a bit like standing in the desert......

Best

juergen

I think online courses will find a niche for people who are dedicated enough to complete the work, and initially for people to learn material for a specific cause instead of academic credentials. It will be a while before full credentials are offered online and accepted in other institutions. However, I do think that traditional universities themselves have to change as well and perhaps embrace some of these new ways of offering courses.

Dear All,

I refer to comments above and like to add two references which I came across during my preparatory work for teaching in winter:

Maturing of the MOOC (Haggard)

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/240193/13-1173-maturing-of-the-mooc.pdf

Excellent survey on the state of the art, you may also want to see:

The MOOC. What the research says (Karsenti)

https://www.academia.edu/5188001/The_MOOC_What_the_research_says

Enjoy reading!°

Best,

Juergen

Hey everybody,

There is a MOOC about Open Knowledge and the participants created a Diigo group for it. As MOOCs are part of the open movement, you can find there many resources about MOOCs, OER, Open Access and so on.

Hope you find everything you need!

https://groups.diigo.com/group/okmooc

Yeah! the https://groups.diigo.com/group/okmooc is the DIIGO group by the Stanford MOOC on MOOCs. I have just finished the course.

To my opinion, this course shows most advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and threats of using MOOCs. It has well-structured content, different forums by themes, experts, and etc., Training materials are presented often by links to Youtube or other external resources. 

And we see different video by format and quality, useful and senseless posts. So each participant may see both views - how to do, and how NOT to do.

I have also just finished the course and it's a really good example - you're right Danil Dintsis.