Email Blues

Some time ago, I mentioned an interest in taking a MOOC. I had thought that by way of extending my knowledge in an area of interest of mine, this would be ideal preparation to the doctorate I wish to participate in at some point, InshAllah.

I confess that some of the knowledge aspects of the learning opportunity from the MOOC have been good, but the experience is not without some reservations. Ironically, it is the "Massive" part of the open online course that I have found to be the most challenging. Example: as part of the course, I am expected to participate in weekly forum discussions. Approved posts notch up points which are used in part to assess overall progress, so there is some incentive to take part in forum discussions. The problem I have found is that in participating, one ends up subscribing to a discussion threads - that every time a posting is made to a thread that I have participated in, it would generate an email notification. I suspected this anyway so I purposely kept my participation only to the most relevant topics of discussion. That said, with 26 thousand global participants in the Coursera MOOC, my inbox has been bursting with over a hundred posts daily.

I am a man with other responsibilities, time constraints and realistically it is near impossible to sift through all those posts and respond in detail. This must affect the learning experience, because by Week 2 of the eight week course, I am reticent to participate in new threads. 

MOOCs - the future of online learning? Put it this way, I liked the idea at the start ...

Massive Open Online Courses: MOOCs

The combination of education and technology brings new opportunities for sharing content and learning and I have a key interest in distance learning, having successfully gone through the process. Despite some obvious challenges - such as the need to maintain your skills of self reliance, generally, I have enjoyed being part of a technologically connected international learning community. Some time back in this blog, I did mention Curt Bonk's enthusiasm for on-line learning too. In my case it meant that I could pursue an academic programme whilst living overseas and crucially meant that I didn't have to give up my full-time work order to do so. In fact in many ways, the DTCE programme at Manchester University was the 'genesis' for this blog (specifically it was a unit taught at a distance on Emerging Technologies that required my thoughts and input that was the key factor in accelerating me towards becoming a regular blogger). However, it is the overall experience of distance learning in my vocational area of education that is the key discussion point here, and the fact that I am now contemplating further academic study through a blended course that involves some distance and some face-to-face contact suggests that - for some - distance programmes remain a valuable opportunity to pursue further learning. Watch this space, but yes, a doctorate is something that I most certainly would like to complete, InshAllah.

I occupy several spaces to be honest - I have worked at the chalkface as a teacher in a variety or national and international state and private settings and I have worked in consultancy and in advisory roles aiming to build capacity. Each setting has its own specifics. A good example would be how primary education is about developing the 'whole child' and how university education is about developing knowledge and understanding in specific academic areas.

We still live in a world where we expect much of our formal learning to be accredited, so that still remains an important point for pursuing a university programme in my opinion so there are some drawbacks with no-fee MOOCs (Massive Open On-line Courses). In fact, if it simply comes down to distribution of course notes/learning materials then there is little to differentiate it with what is already available/downloadable on the Internet in general. Interaction between students and between students and content and tutors is key and that remains yet to be seen. But since some prime universities seem to be investing time in opening up course modules to the world, then perhaps there is some to be experienced and learned hopefully. I've decided to sign up for two courses in areas of interest - education being one of them, naturally, but I wanted to have a go at Life Sciences and specifically, I am interested in learning more about Sustainable Environment. 

I'm potentially excited by the possibilities, but really, is anything for free? 

Watch this space.

Read more here and here.