I just read an article in the Financial Newspaper (The document has been published and written by the Dutch Financial Newspaper, for that reason colored, but for your convenience I am referring to the MOOC initiator) about the “disappointing” results of MOOCS. MOOCS, Massive Open Online Courses are initiated and developed by universities. “Only” 5% of the participants for a MOOC have obtained their certificate. Causes of this “disappointing” result are sought in the large number of participants that “only” for acquiring knowledge follows the MOOC and the lack of face-to-face contact, personal interaction and social pressure.
You see that the stated goals have not been achieved, I see a huge profit in the learning process of the MOOC entrepreneur himself and the participants. Would the MOOC initiator understand that he is enriched with knowledge that he does not measure? I would like to facilitate:
Dear MOOC,
First of all, I would like to thank you for experimenting with MOOC. I do not know if you did that on purpuse, but it seems to be an expiration now.
You will make it possible for anyone to obtain high-quality knowledge. The student only needs access to the internet. It does not matter if you are black, white, yellow, red. No matter what sexual orientation or orientation you have, it does not matter if you are male or female, whether you identify yourself as a man or woman or any other living entity. It does not matter how high your IQ score is, how old or young you are, in which country you live and no matter who your parents are, your friends are, what your beliefs are. MOOC is there for every human being.
By experimenting with MOOC, you have already learned that an estimated 95% of participants have at least “something” of valuable knowledge. For example, someone finds out that he has to buy a new PC because the PC is technically slow and someone who finds out that his digital skills are not great, but also someone who now knows about law en rights and who can actively use that information, someone who has a master can follow on a subject she’d never thought of before. And of course the certificate fetishes her blinking c.v. can be updated with a certificate. MOOC has given a wealth of knowledge and self-awareness and still does. Not in the least to you MOOC.
It is the 95% best MOOC!
You are now trying to improve. After all, you want to increase the “disappointing” 5%. I assume that making MOOCS costs money and that in your case there is a business case behind it. You feel the pressure to raise the percentage. Perhaps also, the competitive MOOCS makers (universities) have a higher percentage. In our education system, it is only about obtaining KPI”s and not for knowledge transfer.
You will now take care of more interaction, by facilitating a after collegeclass forum, so that people can talk to each other, you also expiriment blending learning (physical and virtual meetings).
I welcome this for my bold reason above. “Meeting” is knowledge sharing, meeting is a chance of understanding diversity and its importance.
Last question: “MOOC, are you able to learn yourself? Are you able to produce and publish other figures and results? Because that’s real innovation and that’s really innovation in more than 2 ways.