Challenges with the Schedule MOOC and Prerequisites

For my second and third MOOCs I decided to sign up for Data Science on Coursera and Web Development on Udacity and I'm running into some challenges. Previous posts have discussed the problem with Udacity MOOCs not having a schedule or deadlines. I have to admit, I haven't yet done anything for that course and the lack of deadlines contributes to that. However, my bigger problem is with the Coursera course and it centers on the fact that there are deadlines.

Having regularly scheduled semesters and courses for college students makes a lot of sense, especially for traditional students. All they are doing is going to college. That is the main activity of their lives. Like most adults, I am not in that position. I have a house, yard, kids, and work issues to deal with. The Data Science course started on May 1st. That happens to be 2 weeks before grades are due for Trinity. So the first two weeks of the course overlapped with one of the busiest times in my semester and I had no control over that. There isn't a rolling enrollment and at this point I have no idea if the course will ever be offered again. The result of this is that I have been letting deadlines slip because I simply haven't had the time to meet them. I want to learn the topic, but I have a stronger need to complete the job that pays my mortgage.

There is a second reason I have let things slip that compounds the first one, and that is the lack of structured prerequisites. When I signed up for the course I knew that it was going to use Python and R for the programming assignment, two languages that are not part of my standard repertoire. What I didn't realize was that the video lectures weren't going to spend any time at all teaching them. The assignments point you to other resources to view to learn things like Python, but when you are under a time crunch and can barely get the work done for this course, it doesn't help to find out that they want you to go watch 9 other videos on a different site so that you can do the first assignment.

Now these assignments really aren't programming intensive and given just a bit more time I could have done them without watching those other videos, but I'm a CS professor, I don't think that would be true for a large fraction of the people signed up for this course. In a normal college curriculum this type of thing is handled with prerequisites. The fact that there is a coherent curriculum that has a flow to it where we make sure that each course comes after others that establish the needed material is critical. That is especially true in departments where there is a lot of structure to prerequisite knowledge, something that is common in STEM.

What I feel like I am seeing is really a shortcoming of the Coursera model. (It is probably true of edX as well.) Coursera offers a diverse assortment of courses from many different schools. However, the diversity and the fact that they are coming from many schools is a problem for anything that isn't in some sense introductory level. Any specific prerequisite knowledge needed for these courses becomes a problem because there isn't anything in place to fully communicate that or to help students take courses in a proper sequence. This is something that I think Udacity is much better with. They do describe something of a prerequisite structure in their courses and because they are the sole provider, they can make sure that things line up well. Also, not having hard start and end dates means that people can string courses together when they fit their schedules. The one thing that Udacity might consider, for those who need deadlines, would be to provide an option for artificial deadlines that students could have imposed just to make sure they keep moving forward.

MOOCs and Prospective Students

Here's a recording of this afternoon's hangout about MOOCs in relation to college admissions concerns.

 

Udacity, Computer Science Education and Community Management in MOOCs

Here's the recording of our second Hangout-on-Air. Many thanks to our guest Gundega Dekena.

 

Webinars this Friday

We will hold two online webinars tomorrow in our ongoing series about Massive Open Online Courses and the Liberal Arts College.

10:00 AM - A conversation with Gundega Dekena, TA with Udacity.  We'll discuss computer science education, community management in MOOCs and the online student experience.  CS faculty from Centre College, Hendrix College and Trinity University will participate.

2:30 PM - A conversation with Chris Ellertson, Trinity University Director of Admissions and Audree Hernandez, Director of AdviseTX to explore MOOCs from the perspective of high school students, their parents and counselors.  What, if anything, are prospective students asking about MOOCs?  Does the availability of free online courses change the way they think about applying to college?  How might we use the technology of MOOCs to engage with prospective students?  Faculty from Furman University, Hendrix College, Spelman College and Trinity University will participate.

Live streams of these conversations (and archived recordings) will be available on this page:  https://plus.google.com/u/1/communities/112985926892482353111

Another MOOC Experience

 

As a language instructor and in the hope to experience how MOOCs work with language learning, I signed up for the Language Teaching MOOC. The objective of this course is stated as “… for language teachers of all levels to discuss and gain a deeper understanding of emerging trends in blended teaching and learning of world languages, including the methodology, best practices, and practical application of the blended and online classroom,” and “… to equip participants with the necessary core knowledge and skill set for designing, implementing, and improving a blended or online classroom.” So essentially, this MOOC course is no difference from the one I have taken previously or any other MOOCs except that it focuses more on language teaching methodology and technology.

 

The tools used for this course include a course website, Google+, Google Groups, Blogs, Twitter, and YouTube videos. And the course formats include online discussions, one course project using Instreamia, an online language learning platform created by Ryan & Scott Rapp who are also “instructors” of this LTMOOC.

 

So far, I would rate this LTMOOC course as a great opportunity for langue practitioners to exchange information and ideas. Participants also get a chance to do a project with a couple of technologies which might new to some. Nevertheless, my curiosity to exam as a learner how MOOCs work with a foreign language teaching and learning has not met. Previously I did a couple of experiments which integrate social media and mobile devices to help student with their Chinese learning. Major findings from those experiences is that the help of social media for beginner language learners is very limited, and it helps more with students whose language proficiency is higher, and that students’ motivation is a key issue in online learning.

Relating this experience with a previous question whether MOOCs are a threat to the brick and mortar liberal arts institutions like ours, I would argue that for language courses, especially those beginning and intermediate level courses, MOOCs should be the least threating. Face to face, small student-instructor ratio classroom instruction should still be the most effective means.