A MOOC point

Swati Rai

Unless of course you have been living under a rock, you’d know that apart from independent online portals, prestigious international universities have also started offering MOOCs (Massive, Online Open Course) for a greater reach. Welcome to a digital era of learning. Researchers predicted that India’s online education market size would reach $40 billion by 2017. If last year’s statistics shared by Coursera are to be believed, there were 13 lakh online learners from India out of the 180 lakh online learners on Coursera. There has been a 70 per cent jump over the past one year in the registrations of Indian users on the platform. These figures are indicative of the expected growth in the number of online learners in India. What has added to the attraction of these courses is that players in the higher education like Stanford, MIT, Wharton, Princeton and IITs of India have all contributed to the subject and development of MOOCs that are heavily subscribed to. Sometimes subscriptions run in millions of people across the world.

The question then arises of the sanctity of these courses, of career progression on the basis of these courses and their validity in the job market.

So you want to MOOC it? 

An FAQs refresher is a good point to start from. These courses are intended for college-level students. Being aware of the differences between such a course and an Open Course Ware (OCW) portal is also essential. The latter may post course content however, it doesn’t have a process of enrollments in a formal class. Tracking your own progress in a self-paced course can be most exacting especially when also engaged elsewhere professionally. 

Keep in mind the time at hand, the platform you choose to do it from and most importantly how it will help in your career progression. The course should be chosen after a thorough study of the syllabus that helps build a substantial portfolio. A search of previous courses to see if the mentor or tutor has interactions with the students or not will be helpful. One should always go for a course that has the availability of a professor at least sometimes if not often. 

Checking if the course is going to be helmed by Teaching Assistants should also be looked at. Avoiding fake websites and researching portals that are popular and widely subscribed to will also help!  

Course credits 

Most MOOCs are free to enroll in and pass out of with graded assignments, study material and online interface. However, since the retention rate of these courses is not phenomenal, some portals have also the option of either paying for the whole course or for paying extra for accredited degrees or certificates, college credits. This requires passing the exams and meeting deadlines. 

Some platforms also allow one to continue with the course, get the assignments graded, access the material without fee which is only levied for a ‘verified certificate’ that indicates a successful completion, The fee may vary from $30 to $150. There is, however, an option of doing the course for free and earning a digital badge exemplifying the skills learnt on the course. This could be highlighted on one’s professional website or link as a mark of completion and learning. Take your Pick of the options! 

Benefits 

Ramya Srinivasan, Programme Manager, IIMBx shares, “MOOCs have well-crafted learning experiences through a blend of videos, exercises, discussions and readings that offers a learner a more enriched learning experience. MOOCS also take advantage of OERs (Open Educational Resources) to offer learning nuggets from international experts that is not possible in a face-to-face delivery. It offers collaboration, as it facilitates virtual international limitless classroom where they can learn from and interact with students from diverse backgrounds and cultures”.

MOOCs have democratised and made education accessible to all, though the reasons for opting for such a course may be varied. Avinash Bharwani, Vice-President, Jetking agrees, “MOOC will give an opportunity to the less privileged students to learn new technologies, sciences, business management etc. This will create a skilled manpower in India and will create a massive workforce for future growth”.

Choosing a course wisely and being informed of one’s level of self discipline, is a good place to start from if one has to reap benefits of a MOOC. 

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Portals to check out

FutureLearn: One stop shop for popular online courses the subjects vary from Polity, Robotics to liberal arts. It also offers options for structured paid study courses and accredited degrees.

Udacity: Working in collaboration with companies like Facebook, Hootsuite, Hubspot and Google at Udacity, students learn social media marketing and SEO content strategizing among the many other varied topics 

Coursera: Online courses some free the others paid, Coursera also offers certification in some courses along with specialization for those interested. From business specializations, life sciences to math and logic et al. 

edX: A mix of popular free courses along with those that charge a fee, some of edX courses have instructors who are affiliated with Harvard, Berkeley, and other such prestigious institutions. The courses are self paced as in others too.

Harvard Open Courses: Wish to learn courses such as American Poetry directly from the class at Harvard? You could try this portal where there are videotaped lectures from actual classes at the university.