3 years ago, MOOCs were an idea. Now 5 million of students signed on to MOOCs around the world and 33,000 is the average number of students that sign up for a MOOC. Now, everyone can learn at Harvard or Yale or... Access the infographic
by Julia Smith - Top 10 Online Colleges
The Dream: MOOCs Can:
- Offer Ivy League Courses at non-Ivy League prices (free), thus….
- Lifting people out of poverty
- Unlock billions of brains to solve the world’s biggest problems
And yet
1 in 4: Americans don’t even know what a MOOC is.
They are: Massive Open Online Courses.
Who Takes MOOCs:
- 37% have a B.S. degree
- 28% have a Master’s degree or profession
- 27% high school
Majority of those taking MOOCs tend to be young, male and employed, from highly developed countries.
- Over 40% of students are under 30 years old
- Less than 10% over 60
- 88 % of MOOC students are male
- 62 % are employed
- 13% are unemployed…or retired
Comparison of geographic location of students, by self identification and IP address
- U.S. 34% of MOOC students
- India: 7.28 %
- Brazil: 4.37 %
- Great Britain: 3.89%
- Canada: 3.4%
- Spain: 2.7 %
- Russia: 2.5%
- China: 2%
- Australia: 2%
- Germany: 1.7%
Employment:
- Student: 17.4%
- Part time employed: 6.9%
- Full time employed: 50%
- Self employed: 12.4%
- Unemployed: 6.6%
- Retired: 6.8%
Why do students Participate in MOOCs?
- Gain knowledge to get degree: 13.2%
- Gain specific skills to do job better: 43.9%
- Gain specific skills to get a new job: 17%
- Curiosity: 50%
[Those surveyed could pick more than one answer]
Requirements for successful online learning:
- Quality of material covered in the course
- Engagement of the teacher
- Interaction among students
Accredited Online (only) Schools offer MOOCs
- edX: Courses from:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Harvard
- University of California Berkeley
- Coursera: Courses from:
- California Institute of Technology,
- University of Washington,
- Stanford University,
- Princeton University,
- Duke University
- John Hopkins University, and many others.
Udacity: Partner companies include:
- Google
- Facebook
- Bank of America
Udemy Free courses from:
- Dartmouth,
- University of Virginia
- Northwestern and others….
iTunes Free Courses
- Apple’s free app. Right in the app, they can play video or audio lectures. Read books and view presentations.
Top Universities offer MOOCs:
- Stanford Free Courses - from Quantum Mechanics to The Future of the Internet.
- Stanford’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: 160,000 students from 190 countries signed up to Stanford’s Introduction to AI” course, with 23,000 reportedly completing.
- UC Berkeley Free Courses. Check out Berkeley Webcasts and Berkeley RSS feeds.
- MIT Free Courses: MIT’s RSS MOOC feed, and MIT’s Open Courseware.
- Duke Free Courses – Duke offers a variety of courses on ITunesU.
- Harvard Free Courses: Get a free Harvard education. No application required.
- UCLA Free Courses
- Yale Free Courses – Check out Open Yale
- Carnegie Mellon Free Courses – “No instructors, no credits, no charge”
Pros and Cons of MOOCs:
- Pros: By design, MOOCs are….
- Incredibly flexible
- Diverse in their range of subjects
- Open to anyone
- Free.
And Downs:
- No credit for completion
- Lack of hands on learning
- 100,000 or more to 1, student to teacher ratio
- High dropout rates of up to 90%
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