Massive Open Online Course

The term Massive Open Online Course ( in German about [General] Open mass online course ), short MOOC, refers to a special form of online courses with a theoretically unlimited number of participants. MOOCs combine traditional forms of knowledge transfer such as videos, reading materials and problems with forums in which teachers and learners to communicate and form communities. A distinction must be xMOOCs of cMOOCs. While former essentially on video display recorded lectures with an examination cMOOCs based on the idea of ​​connectivism and more likely to have the form of a seminar or workshop.

  • 2.1 Description

XMOOCs

Description

The xMOOCs originate in regular university courses, which were made ​​after the event as an online course a large number of participants are available. The MOOC the symbol prefixed x is extension and due to the fact that the Harvard University in their course catalog online versions of their courses after the course number with an x ​​-sided.

Typical elements of xMOOCs are videos and quizzes in which test questions must be answered. Depending on the type of course may be added other elements, for example, to read texts or written papers that are judged because of the high number of participants not from the course instructor, but by other course participants.

XMOOCs are usually accompanied by online forums in which students can exchange. The interconnectedness is not an integral part of the concept, but it can be useful xMOOCs with the concept of the Personal Learning Network ( PLN) to join.

Examples of vendors and platforms

International proprietary platforms

  • Coursera: A leading commercial MOOC platform from the U.S..
  • EDX: open collaborative e -learning platform of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University.
  • Udacity: Commercial U.S. platform that offers mainly courses in the computer science field.
  • Class2Go: MOOC offer from Stanford University (Open Source) - has announced a merger with Open EdX to June 2013.

Open Source platforms

  • Open EDX: open source software platform of EDX and Google. Open EDX does not provide unique courses, but provides a free software platform for other providers globally.
  • OpenMOOC: Developed in Spain MOOC platform, which is under the open source Apache 2.0 license.
  • P2PU: English education platform that offers MOOCs among others. Content is available under an open license.

German platforms

  • Iversity: Commercial providers of MOOCs from Berlin.
  • Open Course World (website ): A German MOOC platform, which is operated by IMC AG, a provider of software solutions for e -learning.
  • Openhpi (website): German MOOC platform on various topics of information technology (IT), operated by the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering.

Platforms of individual institutions

  • OpenSAP: SAP E -learning platform.
  • Venture Lab MOOC offer from Stanford University.
  • The Virtual Linguistics Campus e-learning platform for linguistics at the University of Marburg, Germany

CMOOCs

Description

Starting from a main heading and a schedule with some specified sections and events set the course provider in cMOOCs as pulse a few available online usually resources such as texts or videos. The participants decide for themselves whether and in what way they engage. If they are active, they create even more materials, such as in the form of blog posts, tweets, videos, or podcasts. You will be provided the course available and can henceforth commented, discussed or expanded. In this way, a cross-linking between learners and their contents, as propagated in connectivism. This approach (English connectivism ) springs the MOOCs the prefix c.

The involvement typically occurs in four stages or main actions:

Media Coverage

The theme MOOC experiences particularly in early 2013 in the German press, a lot of attention, but the coverage is limited to xMOOCs. As a special opportunity, accessibility is highlighted to learning opportunities. However, is offset by problems of didactic nature. The e-learning researcher Rolf Schulmeister criticized in a lecture which up to this time " little conducive to learning preparation ' of xMOOCs. The sometimes limited experience of some lecturer with the organization of online events is also reflected in several reports: A professor broke off his xMOOC because he saw overwhelmed with the increased interaction compared to traditional lectures. Another professor ended prematurely a course due to massive technical problems - significantly in a xMOOC on " Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application".

In the Critique xMOOCs are also due to the low graduation rate. On the basis of freely accessible data it was found that often successfully complete less than 10 % of the participants the course. The reasons are, for example:

  • Participants find that the MOOC but requires too much time
  • Fatigue due to the receptive lecture format
  • Generally poor instructional design of the course

However, this is tempered by the fact that not all participants must have necessarily put the purchase of a certificate to the target and therefore did not participate in the tests provided.

The end of 2013, finally multiply in the press voices that speak of expecting too much from the format xMOOCs and they regarded only as a harbinger of further development in e -learning. Sebastian Thrun, founder of xMOOC platform Udacity says, even self- critical, his company had a lousy product.

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