From time to time there is a need to discuss is the traditional behavior need to be changed? Is it efficient? Few years ago on the internet appears new trend: Massive open online course (MOOC). A new communication of transferring knowledge is founded on internet. What special about it? In the past universities support themselves by using learning management system LMS in addition of the traditional classroom curses. Students could download materials and other resources, communicate with other students and upload they work on teachers server. Now they can do the same by enrolling to one of MOOC platform. They don't need to meet age or any other criteria. As long as they understand material and upload they work they are graded by teachers and finally they receive accomplishment certificate. Will this revolutionize current education system? For now hundred of thousand students are using this outstanding system.
I understand that there is a lot of long pages to read so I composed my questions in way that they can be answered without need of deeper read of this article but i strongly recommend to do it. Especially if you are interested in future trends of higher education changes.
Please answer the questions:
- Actually the teaching method doesn’t differ much from the methods used by first universities in 800 AD - young people gather with an older teacher who shares wisdom. Will XXI-st century bring fundamental change in the education system?
- Have you ever used MOOC (Massive open online course)?
- Are courses on the EDUX platform a good step into the future education? What do they lack?
- Do you think it is a good idea to change the examiner's role with artificial program to check knowledge and skills of student?
First of all short information about MOOC well descibed at http://www.educause.edu/library/massive-open-online-course-mooc.
ReplyDeleteQ1. I am sure that XXI century will bring many changes to the education system, but not fundamentally, mainly for model of higher education. Why adults? One one hand they they suffer from shortage of time, but on the other they need to gain their qualifications. A new metods allow them to save their time and what is more gain their competences. For me it will be time for e-learning, blended learning, MOOC.
Q2. I have never heard about Masive Open Online Course. I did quick research based on
ReplyDeletehttp://www.educause.edu/library/massive-open-online-course-mooc. What is MOOC:
1. Model for delivering learning content to any person who wants to take course with no limits on attendance.
2. It is not a school. It is not an online course.
3. It is a globally, universally way to connect and collaborate engaging in the learning process - EVENT.
But what abour MOOC's certificates? What is their values? Can they comete with traditionall one?
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DeleteOn Coursera (www.coursera.org) there are lot of universities like Hardvard, MIT, Standford etc. who provides learners certificates after course accomplishment. I tried gain one on Cryptography course but exercises ware very difficult and time consuming. Material and difficulty of gaining that certificates should be a value for employers. Especially if Harvard is written on one of them.
DeleteWhat is your opinion?
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DeleteI undersand. In the form you described it it makes sens. If the level of difficulty, listed topics with number of hours and mark are included in certificate the value of diploma for employer is better.
DeleteQ3. Are courses on EDUX platform good? Sure. I started working through EDUX this year. Working with "Puzzled learning" I saw only a few features: upload, download of files, chat that didn't work, biblography, ads. EDUX seems to be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteQ4. For me it is a bad idea. Generally, I think that course needs to be splited into a few hours of indywidual work through the EDUX for example, and then a few meetings (laboratories, stationary tutorials). Of course it depends on a type of subject (lecture, laboratory, exercise). All in all exam should be executed by examiner.
ReplyDeleteActually teaching method doesn't differ much from original methods from first universities in 800 AD - young people gather with mostly older teacher who share wisdom. Will XXI-st century bring fundamental change in the education system?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion it already has changed. Nowadays people can learn without the assistance of another human being. Technology provides methods that make teachers obsolete in some of the cases. It is not yet ideal but in the future it should improve, mainly in the interaction aspect. Of course so far people are needed to create the courses but maybe with the AI advancement, computers in the future will be intelligent enough to create them by themselves. I don't want to turn this into sci-fi but its an optimistic prediction. ;)
Have you ever use MOOC (Massive open online course)?
Not really, although I have read some articles that were promoting them. I don't think they are that appealing yet (maybe they are popular among
people who can't attend normal courses because of factors like distance etc. and lack of alternatives).
Are courses on EDUX platform a good step in the future of education? What do they lack?
I think they are quiet a solid step forward in to the future of education. Unfortunately, currently they lack mechanisms that would improve personal interactions (mostly natural/physical). It seems to me that another major problem is the credibility of tests. There are more and easier ways of cheating in online exams and that decreases the credibility of the student in accomplishing a specific course.
Do you think it is a good idea to change examiner role with artificial program to check wisdom and skills of student?
As stated before, not at this current point of time. AI has to mature enough to provide such functionality.
Actually teaching method doesn’t differ much from origin methods from first universities in 800 AD - young people gather with mostly older teacher who share wisdom. Will XXI-st century bring fundamentally change in education system?
ReplyDeleteIn principle, teaching stays the same – the more experienced person shares knowledge with students. However, from 800 AD the depth and breadth of available information and knowledge increased so much that there is no single person who is an expert even in one domain. Take IT for example. The field got so diversified that specialists from one field in IT can have difficulty understanding people in another field. This very narrow but deep specialization leads to situations when pupils know more about some aspects then their teachers. And this brings us to the point when teaching will not be done by elderly wise men but a group of experts in their narrow fields. The challenge in teaching shifts to coordination and proper arrangement of the study program.
Have you ever used MOOC (Massive open online course)?
I have taken courses on Coursera and EDX. I found Coursera experience better – their platform is designed for various systems & devices, including smartphones, and you get access to courses content even when the course has finished. General learning experience stays the same for all MOOC platforms.
Are courses on EDUX platform are good step in future education? What they lack?
EDUX platform courses are a great way for studying, especially for people with limited time & location availability. They have obvious disadvantages like lack of face-to-face interaction both with teachers and peers. However, current communication technology greatly mitigates this problem which makes remote studying nearly equal to classical form of studying.
Do you think it is a good idea to change examiner role with artificial program to check wisdom and skills of student?
It is a good idea to put the artificial program in the first line of knowledge check of the student. It is already done with regular tests, IT projects, etc. However, examiner should always be available in the second line for consultation, clarifications and help.
Q)Actually teaching method doesn’t differ much from origin methods from first universities in 800 AD - young people gather with mostly older teacher who share wisdom. Will XXI-st century bring fundamentally change in education system?
ReplyDeleteA) This question reminded me the first mathematics teacher I had in high school. He was a special old guy with deep knowledge but unfortunately we lost him during the second year. I can not say the replacement wasn't a proper one but the level of tricks weren't any close comparing to the mastermind we'd lost. Hopefully the science / technology will help us more to capture the masterminds.
Q)Have you ever use MOOC (Massive open online course)?
A)No, I haven't or I don't think so.
Q) Are courses on EDUX platform are good step in future education? What they lack?
A) Good start for a university but a bit behind of the current trends. I can count lots of application features missing (forums, QAs, integrated library, palagiarism checking..)
Q) Do you think it is a good idea to change examiner role with artificial program to check wisdom and skills of student?
A) As long as there is a way to understand the context from student's work yes since most teachers follow the rule book though.
About EDUX - it depends what modules were enabled by the teacher for the course (for example, forums can be enabled).
Delete1. Actually teaching method doesn’t differ much from origin methods from first universities in 800 AD - young people gather with mostly older teacher who share wisdom. Will XXI-st century bring fundamentally change in education system?
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that it will change faster now because of new technology and competition. It may happen sooner in countries where education costs more (it's not free) where the state of the economy plays a bigger role. According to the article the biggest change would be the prevalence of distance learning or at least traditional teaching combined with other means.
2. Have you ever use MOOC (Massive open online course)?
No, I haven't, but it sounds like a good idea.
3. Are courses on EDUX platform are good step in future education? What they lack?
Yes, it's a necessary step to to able to offer online courses. I'm sure it will be developed further maybe adding some of the functionality mentioned by others above.
4. Do you think it is a good idea to change examiner role with artificial program to check wisdom and skills of student?
If we're only talking about exams, then it's not such a far-fetched idea. Some universities have already switched to tests, which can be automatically graded. So checking is possible, but creating the exam is more difficult Although one could assemble a database of questions and have a computer select which questions to put on the test.
1. Actually teaching method doesn’t differ much from origin methods from first universities in 800 AD - young people gather with mostly older teacher who share wisdom. Will XXI-st century bring fundamentally change in education system?
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to Polish universities I agree that the education system has not changed but when it comes to foreign universities it does not look at Polish universities, In Polish universities pass the exam consists of learning the material and pass it and later forgotten this material. In foreign universities the main emphasis on the practice of credit there is no exam but to prepare a project and I think it is much better because of enrolled students preparing to work in real life. In the work does not require us to knowledge of rules only problem-solving skills
2. Have you ever use MOOC (Massive open online course)?
No I never use it
3. Are courses on EDUX platform are good step in future education? What they lack?
Do you think it is a good idea to change examiner role with artificial program to check wisdom and skills of student?
It is good idea but I think that better is to get normal classes because when you have normal classes you have interaction between teacher and students you can ask question and so on. Recently I watched a documentary about that in USA some universities tried to introduce the study of by the Internet where professors recorded their lectures that were available for all.Unfortunately it has not worked in the case of subjects such as Informatics and mathematics because students had a big problem with understanding of materials.
I believe that XXI century will bring many alternatives to current education system. It's hard to tell at this point if any of them will actually replace it, but I'm sure they will be a lot of experimentation and they will at least supplement it somehow. We can already see alternative approaches to teaching both in preschools and in higher education. Primary schools seem the most resilient to change.
ReplyDeleteI have used MOOCs, I think it's a great initiative. I believe that knowledge and education should be freely available to anyone who is willing to learn and MOOCSs are making it possible. Anyone can pick and watch lectures from some of the greatest universities.
I don't really have any real experience with our EDUX platform, I only used its basic features.
Regarding the last question, I think it depends on the field. While it's easy to test someone's math, physics or programming knowledge with artificial programs, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for humanities.