Taking a cue from the popularity of massive multi-player online games, the American Council on Education will decide whether to give its stamp of approval to massive open online courses (MOOCs), a form of teaching that is gaining momentum among students and higher educational institutions.
Approval of MOOCs could bode particularly well for IT professionals seeking experts in big-data, virtualization, security, cloud, and other high-demand technologies, where graduation rates typically are below job openings. These free online courses, typically taught by top professors, are open to all via the Internet. More universities and colleges are offering courses in an array of topics from philosophy to chemistry and everything in between.
As Molly Corbett Broad, president of the council, told USA Today:
MOOCs are an intriguing, innovative new approach that holds much promise for engaging students across the country and around the world, as well as for helping colleges and universities broaden their reach. But as with any new approach, there are many questions about long-term potential, and ACE is eager to help answer them.
Next year, the council will work with faculty teams to examine content and the rigor of courses to determine whether they should receive college credit. This is a spin-off from Ace Credit, a division of the council that was created in 1974, to help adults earn credits for courses and exams they took outside traditional degree programs, according to USA Today.
Each educational institution would decide whether or not to follow the council's recommendation. Professor Dan Boneh of Stanford University, for example, offers cryptography via Coursera, a "social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free." Boneh's six-week course, which began November 5, includes written homework and programming labs, and included a discussion of deployed protocols, mistakes in existing systems, public key techniques, and encryption, according to his course description.
An as-yet unscheduled course by Barbara Endicott-Popovsky will tackle Information Security and Risk Management In Context, while Professor Hank Lucas is scheduled to address Surviving Disruptive Technologies during an April 2013 course. Coursera offers IT-related programs in artificial intelligence, robotics, and vision; programming and software engineering; systems, security, and networking; computer science theory; electrical and materials engineering; information, technology, and design; law; mathematics and statistics; data analysis; and scientific computing.
Competitor UDacity features many courses of interest to technology professionals, offering a handful of beginner courses, with an emphasis on intermediate and advanced programs in topics including Web development, software testing, programming languages, HTML5 game development, software debugging, building a startup, artificial intelligence, parallel programming, and applied cryptography. (You can also brush up on your humanities, too, if you'd like, perhaps taking a course in American poetry.)
For its part, edX -- formed by Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley -- offers classes including SaaS using Ruby on Rails, SaaS + Agile, foundations of computer graphics, introduction to computer science and programming, AI, and quantitative methods in clinical and public health research.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is funding the council's initiative, is also researching the impact of MOOCs to determine their impact on student learning, college attainment levels, and engaging adult learners.
Ideally, the council will allow educators to award credits to those students who attend and pass MOOCs. But even if that doesn't occur, IT professionals would be wise to review the courses available to them at these sites, especially those classes taught by professors from such highly regarded universities.
At a time when IT departments are expected to understand their organizations' business issues and CIOs increasingly vie for the same technological talent, it makes sense to promote the use of these highly esteemed, free educational tools within your departments anywhere in the world to educate staff and further increase the value of your teams.
I'm really enjoying Coursera. I don't have quite enough time to devote to assignments but the classes I've taken have been great. I like how you start by saying "If I like studying again" -- were you you reluctant studier? I certainly was. I enjoy studying and learning so much more now that I'm all grown up and have a wide selection of topics to choose from.
That is true. Speaking as someone who graduated from college many years ago, I think MOOCs are a great way to determine whether I want to invest time after work in pursuing either another degree or further education for my own personal interest or career. Since I am investing only my time (vs. my time and money), I am pretty excited about looking into a couple of the courses I discovered while researching this piece. If I enjoy studying again, then I most likely would prefer a blend of traditional classroom learning with a dash of online.
Times are changing and it is good to see the education market keeping up. However online should be supplemental but for many learners nothing beats hands on
@David I wholly agree with you on this point "For me it's the challenge of figuring out how your employee will learn best - and getting them the appropriate resources so they learn the most and can then apply that to their job." Offering a one-size style opportunity isn't going to fill everyone's gaps in training.
As I read this I combine this idea with my daughter's return home from college for the holiday weekend. She is a freshman and she is loving her college experience, yet for next semester she's disappointed that she has an online class versus a "real" class and she is on the waiting list - hoping to get the in-person class.
It does not appear to be an age thing, as my daughter is most certainly of the millenial / internet generation, but some people just don't learn as well online. The same way that some people learn more from reading versus attending a class - online or physical class.
For me it's the challenge of figuring out how your employee will learn best - and getting them the appropriate resources so they learn the most and can then apply that to their job.
This is a great initiative, however, how would senior executives and decision makers feel about this? Asking a high ranked official of your company to attend a lecture could send the wrong message to them, even if the intent behind it pure. People's egos might get in the way of learning, plus the political factor that so often hinder the way of change may spoil this too.
I think the main obstacles are fear and change. I believe these obstacles are only with the older faculty (those nearing social security). I believe most of the older faculty are fearful of such learning process and worse they refuse change because of age (thinking too old when having to learn to do something new).
As faculty and school administrators get more inclined to advanced technology, long distance learning will be more acceptable. By ivy league schools officially endorsing, all other schools not doing it will eventually do so because they will have to.
The New York Times published a long article today on MOOCs, if you're interested in reading more anecdotes about individuals who are using and teaching the courses.
That is a fantastic idea, Imran. There is the One Laptop per Child initiative, of course, that aims to equip every child with a rugged, low-cost laptop. And there are other programs that look to provide more bandwidth to poorer parts of the world. As we see all too often, there are many regions where education is a privilege, not a right, and using technology would definitely help many boys and (especially) girls receive the skills they need to go far in life.
You're 100% correct about the way in which professors zealously protect their kingdoms. I am not sure how/if professors and teachers get paid for these online, free-to-students classes; I hope so, although I don't know whether the university/college, the online site (Coursera et al), or a sponsor/advertiser would pay. Does anyone know?
But i don't believe these academics can prevent this surge from occurring. There is too much pent up demand and there are too many educators apparently willing to teach these online courses. Thankfully!
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