#4 Making MOOCs Great Again
As an EdTech entrepreneur, and mentor to budding data scientists, I keep hearing tirades against MOOCs ever since the ‘fully online and…
It’s high time we started focusing on ways to improve the MOOC experience for committed learners.
As an EdTech entrepreneur, and mentor to budding data scientists at GreyAtom, I keep hearing tirades against MOOCs ever since the ‘fully online and free-for-all’ learning revolution ran out of its 5 minutes of fame.
MOOCs, or massive open online courses, showed great initial promise as a means of scaling up the reach of high-quality learning content and reducing the cost of education.
It was like Christmas had arrived early for the global learner community. In those days, nobody could have even guessed that MOOCs were actually headed for an anticlimax.
Gradually, people had started comparing the wholesome utility of MOOCs with the pedagogical discipline of traditional courses. With growing concerns over dismal ‘completion rates’, the fact that an unusually high number of learners failed or simply dropped out of MOOCs was cited as overwhelming proof of their ineffectiveness.
A Dangerous Obsession
But I, for one, find the obsession with completion rates absurd! Completion rate alone can’t measure the value proposition of a resource that provides high-value learning content for free to anyone with an internet connection.
Think about it — we can binge-watch an entire season or two of our favourite web series over a weekend, but do we read every word printed in the newspaper every single day? When we flip the criticism of MOOCs onto the traditional approach it collapses by its own logic.
Yet, somehow, MOOCs were abruptly discredited as an over-hyped mode of learning, powerless at sustaining learner attention. But emerging tech has a way of rising again from its own ashes.
Breathing New Life Into MOOCs
Really, it’s not about dealing with the excessive dropouts.
It’s about focusing on ways to improve the experience for the more committed learners.
Let me list the real problems with MOOCs:
Lacks a personalized approach, resulting in a poor virtual classroom experience.
Little to zero interaction, therefore learners don’t get to practice social skills.
Passively consuming hours of video tutorials without working on real-world business problems doesn’t prepare them for the job market.
Often MOOCs don’t provide access to any real mentors
Finally, being a self-paced format, there is no motivation to ‘complete’ the program except the learner’s own intention.
Enter Flipped MOOCs
In a new paper, researchers have introduced the concept of Flipped MOOCs that can lead to better cognitive outcomes, motivation, and learning.
They borrow a leaf or two from flipped classrooms — a learning approach wherein absorption of new concepts takes place online, while the classroom is reserved for hands-on work and collaboration.
To flip the MOOC, we employ building blocks of the flipped classroom approach, and leverage gamification as well as learner analytics.
Gamification or infusing game elements in MOOC design improves engagement, while learner analytics helps personalize the learning journey
So does flipping the MOOC guarantee better outcomes? Yes! It sweetens the deal for learners in places that the original version misses:
Personalized content and course structures
Interactive learning journey
Learning with mentors and peers
Gives learners a sense of responsibility and control
The research confirms that bringing in the ‘flipped classroom’ approach to MOOCs not only addresses known shortcomings but is probably the future of MOOCs as well.
Here’s How We Do It
At GreyAtom, our learning platform, GLabs, plays by the flipped classroom approach to induce positive changes in learner behaviour and help them self-regulate their learning strategy,
The GLabs experience: Learners practice coding in a virtual session with mentor Siddharth Ramachandran.
Here’s the shorthand version of how flipped classroom, game elements, and analytics drive the learning journey on GLabs:
Empowering our Learners: We give learners control of their learning journey. Solving business problems on real datasets from our partners lets them advance through the personalized plan charted out by GLabs.
Learning with the Tribe. GLabs courses are played in multiplayer mode. Each tribe has concept-level forums for live discussions with other learners and mentors. Learners also form special teams to work on complex problems.
Business driven projects: The projects in our platform are end to end business driven use cases. This familiarizes the learners on how to convert Business problems into Data Science problems
Real mentors lead each tribe. Real mentors coach tribes and keep track of each remote learner’s progress. Forming tribes creates a sophisticated learning scenario where learners have to work as a team to face bigger challenges.
Stimulated Planning. It pushes learners to define their own learning strategy. Like a strategy game, it charts a personalized journey and recommends the next best project the learner should attempt based on their skills and competencies.
Aiding Progress with Clues. You will also find that a hint (or the solution, if need be) will always be given on GLabs to those who ask for it! So that even complex tasks seem like an adventure, not an insurmountable hurdle.
Strategic Goal Indicators. Milestones, reached by completing solo projects and clearing assessment checkpoints, compel learners to follow a structured approach and achieve goals on time.
Dynamic Skills Indicators. As the learner gradually acquires ammo and powers, they can track their skills grow over time and benchmark themselves vis-a-vis others in the tribe through a real-time dashboard.
Storytelling. Just like professional gamer avatars, data scientists need to be great storytellers too. Blogging is a mandatory part of the program so that our learners communicate ideas and showcase work effectively.
The resulting game-like experience and cognitive feedback keep GLabs remote learners committed and do wonders for their confidence!
They’re not passively poring over mountains of video content anymore. Instead, it’s an engaging process that interacts with them, acknowledges their every move, and recommends the next best one.
The difference in results is unmissable! Look at the data:-
Adherence: On an average , our learners spend about 75 minutes per day on GLabs.
Outcomes: 80% of learners who are in it looking for a career pivot, successfully transitioned to a new job after completing the course.
More To It Than Meets The Eye
Enough potshots have been taken at MOOCs. It’s high time we stopped sounding the death knell and focused on how MOOCs should evolve instead.
MOOCs are vital for the top 5 percent of the global learner community at least. It’s really a matter of upgrading the experience for those committed learners first.
By flipping the MOOC, we might repeat the success story that made high-quality learning content accessible on a global level.
Only this time, we at GreyAtom, will be opening the doors to high-quality interactive education for the whole world!
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