Arthur Charpentier  ❄Verified account

Hello @freakonometrics, I'm an Edtech student who's interested in studying and reviewing this paper. Can I get accessibility for the pdf file?

I did include the link... don't you use sci-hib ?

No. Unfortunately, I do not. Our university has no access to that. I would be very grateful if someone could help me with this.

of course your university does not offer the access ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub 

The end of the article is disappointing. The MOOCs weren't "domesticated" by existing higher ed; instead their learning model failed on its own. Would like to see a study that explained WHY they failed. The need is huge.

Haven't looked at recent MOOCs, but my intuition 1) the content was too watered down compared to regular college courses 2) low incentive for course completion (completing online courses don't provide degree credentials) 3) competition: many profs now record&share their lectures

When traditional education folks study MOOCs they totally mess it up every time. e.g. Why on earth are people still using completion rate as a success metric? Our course, for instance, is explicitly designed to provide most of what you need in the first couple of lessons.

Exactly! I routinely peruse parts of courses I want and skip over things I already know. I take fastai every year but I skip around to maximize enjoyment or coordinate with a side project. I feel like that was one of the points of MOOCs in the first place

If MOOCs have failed, I have trouble explaining the success of inspiring folks like you, @HamelHusain ... :)

I agree with you that sharing material online is immensely useful for everyone's education. So the argument was that also because more online lectures (which are not automatically MOOCS) are contributing to the decline in interest in completing MOOCS b.1/b.2

b.2/b.2 To me, a MOOC is something with a discussion forum, TAs, certificates, etc, which is different from sharing course videos or lectures online and discussing on social media. The online course material from taught-in-person courses is often better than most MOOCs

There are many bad MOOCs and many bad in person courses. But you can pick the best MOOC in the world - it'll often be free - whilst can't go to any in person course you choose.

For Academic #MOOCs this might (!) be the case, but #Enterprise #MOOCs are vital & growing. In 2018 @SAP’s MOOC platform @openSAP had its best year ever in terms of new learner registrations, course enrollments, engagement and successful completions. #LearningForLife @moenig

that's exactly how I read the essay. MOOCs are not likely to make brick-and-mortar schools obsolete or transform universities, but they're here to stay to provide specialized supports for non-traditional learning environments such as companies and customer training.

@GFereshte what are your thoughts on this?

Well, the issue is measures for traditional online courses are used to measure MOOC success, while MOOCs are different. I myself rarely complete a MOOC, but this is because I know what I want from a specific MOOC & I just complete the relevant weeks...1/2

... as a learner I choose what I need/want to learn. So from the beginning my intention wasn’t to complete a MOOC, and I shouldn’t be considered as a learner who drops out. This is the freedom of choice (open) & informal learning that MOOCs offer.

It sounds to me that you weren’t using a MOOC as a substitute for a course; you were using the MOOC as a substitute for a book. Perhaps that is the more fair way to view MOOCs: super fancy, very well designed visual-audio textbooks.