Anyone living the 21st century has probably heard of online courses somehow or another, and the motivation for online education has increased even more in recent years. But what is it exactly that is taking over the pupils of traditional education? The answer: MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses. These classes are what students are looking for; they’re practically free. Not to mention that thousands of students can take the same online course, with the same teacher and classes never fill up. Even more, those who do not have access to high quality education and live in all corners of the world can enroll in an institution. Those who have busy schedules can take classes around their schedule. In reality, MOOC is what students all over the world has been looking for.
However, MOOCs are the prototype for what has to come in the online education world. Online courses are a work in progress, and MOOCs certainly have fallbacks. In fact, there is a main component of MOOCs that create a barrier for those students who have chosen the online route-a lack of collaboration with both students and teachers. Traditional classrooms have a valuable and critical building block for conversation between students. We have found more and more that it is essential for students to have that collaboration between peers, where they can share ideas, information, questions, and build group work skills. In addition, students want an ease of access to educators, so that questions can be easily answered and learning can be unique. Ray Schroeder, the director for the Center for Online Learning in Springfield, stated that, “three things matter most in online learning:quality of material covered, engagement of the teacher and interaction among students…But providing instructor connection and feedback, including student interactions, is trickier” (Pappano). The way these MOOCs are set up, with the thousands of students getting to learn from just one teacher, may seem like an innovative tool. While it is efficient, this can be a setback for students who want and need attention from educators. Further, Ray Schroeder speaks about this potential barrier, “What’s frustrating in a MOOC is the instructor is not as available because there are tens of thousands of others in the class, how do you make the massive feel intimate? That’s what everyone is trying for figure out.”
We believe that MOOC should be altered to fit the needs of real students. We have designed an online platform that can be altered for actual existing universities, so that dedicated students can still attend their dream school. Forbes magazine, on the topic of online education, describes MOOCs, “ Right now MOOCs exist in a separate world from universities, but that’s likely to change.” In addition, we created a platform that is specifically designed to allow easy collaboration between students and their educators. Along with many other features, iQ offers:
Customizable user profiles: a member can access their posts, link to other social accounts, access their groups, create public and private photo albums and more. A member’s interests, educational background, and other experience can be managed from within the profile editor and viewed by their connections.
Public and Private Groups; Users can post rich media to the group activity streams. Use public groups to build awareness, authority, and interest. Private groups are ideal for closed loops or engagement.
Events: Integrate your events with your event marketing campaigns to track performance and attendance.Our event management system enables users to RSVP to events, add events to calendars and engage with events with comments, posts and images.
Read more about the MOOC insustry: Pappano, Laura. “The Year of the MOOC”.