Last year, the University of Toronto joined a number of other universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). These free and internet-accessible courses are a growing trend among distinguished institutions, stemming from a heightened rate of information exchange brought on by new technology. Amidst the hype, a looming question remains: what impact will MOOCs have on the standard pedagogy of institutions of higher learning?
It’s a question at the forefront of U of T’s Open UToronto initiative, which aims to provide open educational content on a global scale through mediums like MOOCs, as a means to explore novel teaching methods. Over the past 10 months, seven courses ranging from programming to psychology have gone online; another course is slated to begin next week, and two more are being offered in October.
The benefits of open learning are clear. “Wikipedia is not education; it’s just a bunch of information. MOOCs are able to provide students with information in a more systematic way,” said professor Bryan Karney, instructor for the upcoming behavioural economics MOOC.
Easy accessibility for individuals worldwide also means a greater opportunity for global communication. Michael Ridley, former chief information officer at the University of Guelph, participated in the Aboriginal Worldviews and Education MOOC, and noted that he received direct accounts of the course’s content from aboriginal students who had enrolled.
With MOOC enrolment averaging 61,000 students, at any given point, communication can be chaotic. Ridley said the message boards for a course are often overwhelming and, as a result, he often skipped over them.
Another prominent criticism of the format is the lack of contact with instructors. “Without [communication],” said professor Paul Gries, who teaches the computer programming MOOC, “only the truly motivated will flourish.” At U of T, only 17 per cent of active learners, meaning those who watched at least one video, completed their courses.
Ridley claims the format’s advantages will emerge once it evolves to mitigate the caveats of massive enrolment. “Currently, many MOOCs emulate the old ‘sage on the stage’ style of teaching, where students are just receptacles of information, and so are using new technology in old-fashioned ways.” He sees tremendous potential in creating small discussion groups of people with similar backgrounds instead of the current forum boards, believing that the discussion groups will provide “coherent discussion” for students and bring MOOCs down to a “human scale.”
Karney views the interactive nature of the course, which consists of short lecture videos, quizzes, assignments, and discussion boards, as a great way to begin a conversation but in no way “a competition with going to a great school and having one-on-one interaction with great students.”
Last year, Gries implemented an inverted classroom for his introductory computer programming course — content is provided before class and lecture becomes a conduit for discussion and problem solving through instructional videos used in the programming MOOC. During lecture, he recalls walking around the room to help students with their code.
While the future of MOOCs remains uncertain, one thing is clear: advancing technology is fostering curiosity and learning beyond university walls. For the majority of U of T MOOCs, the highest attending student population was made up of individuals that categorized themselves as “lifelong learners.”
In the meantime, U of T will continue offering MOOCs though the educational technology companies Coursera and EdX, with four more courses currently in development.
