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Massive Open Online Courses – Anyone Can Access Anywhere at Anytime
K. Suresh OPEN ACCESS ICSSR Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Education Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, India Manuscript ID: EDU-2020-08032458 P. Srinivasan Professor and Head, Department of Education Volume: 8 Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, India
Issue: 3 Abstract Information Communication Technology influences all dimensions of education. Especially in Month: June distance education, rapid change occurs. Based on the huge availability of online resources like open education resources, distance education can be accessed openly at a low cost. In the 21st century, teaching and learning, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is a new trend of learning Year: 2020 for digital learners. MOOC is an open education system available on the web. It is a low-cost courseware, and the participants can access the learning content from anywhere and anytime. The P-ISSN: 2320-2653 MOOCs are categorized cMOOCs, xMOOCs, and Quasi MOOC models. India is a developing country, and it is making steps ahead to digitalization on its processes. e-panchayat, a-district, e-hospital, e-greetings, e-office, e-visa, e-NAM (National Agricultural Market), e-pathshala are E-ISSN: 2582-1334 the examples for India stood on digitalization. India tried to ensure access, equity, and quality education to the massive. With this aim, the SWAYAM portal initiated, and it was the milestone of Received: 06.04.2020 Indian distance education and providing open education to massive through MOOCs. This paper portrayed on Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), its different types of MOOCs, platforms for MOOCs, MOOCs in India, and its merits. Accepted: 23.05.2020 Keywords: MOOCs, cMOOCs, xMOOCs, SWAYAM, and Quadrants.
Published: 01.06.2020 Introduction Generally, the dimensions of education have been enriched and furbished by Citation: Suresh, K., and P. Information Communication Technology (ICT). The boom of ICT, new trends, Srinivasan. “Massive Open and innovations are flourished in teaching and learning. Distance education is Online Courses – Anyone rapidly changed today with new technologies. Based on the huge availability Can Access Anywhere of online resources like open education resources, distance education enabled at Anytime.” Shanlax access openly at a low cost. In the 21st century, teaching and learning, Massive International Journal of Open Online Course (MOOC) is a new trend of learning for digital learners. Education, vol. 8, no. 3, Consider the history of providing education; there are two different strands 2020, pp. 96–101. available. In the first strand, the open course grew at the surface of the open education system. In 2007, David Wiley ran a campus course online is the DOI: second strand. The campus online course is the base for an open online courses https://doi.org/10.34293/ for connectivism and emerged as Connective Knowledge in 2008, called as education.v8i3.2458 CCK08. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is a new trend in 21st- century teaching and learning. It is an online course anyone from anywhere can be accessed online. MOOCs are the new paradigm shift in the present This work is licensed scenario, and it makes an impact on the global education system. Denial (2016) under a Creative Commons rightly indicated that over 400 MOOCs are available worldwide and register Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 35 million users at any given time (as cited in Chauhan and Chauhan, 2018). International License MOOCs are online courses that can be accessed anywhere at any time online. The first MOOC offered with open source and opened educational resources at the University of Manitoba.
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Meaning of MOOC • MOOC Model – It is based on the traditional MOOC is an acronym, and the abbreviation is a learning approach, and the mode of contents Massive Open Online Course. It is a new trend of are videos and short quizzes. It focuses the teaching and learning in the 21st century. The term duplication knowledge, and it is tested through ‘MOOC’ was used by Stephen Downes and George testing methods—for example, Udacity, Siemens at the University of Prince Edward Island Coursera, udemy, Khan Academy, Venture, and for the first time in 2008 (as cited in Chauhan and edX. Chauhan, 2018). Its special features are, there is no • Quasi MOOC Model – It is a model that delivers limit for participants’ enrolment, and it enables open content like open educational resources, and it access of contents, and it can be accessed anywhere provides little knowledge to the learners. It is and anytime. It is a free web-based distance learning possible in social interaction and grading. program that is designed for the participation of All the above three models, cMOOCs is the large numbers of geographically dispersed students common MOOC pattern. According to Swam, et (Josesheba, 2016). MOOC facilitates the engagement al., (2013), cMOOCs are objectivist rather than of the participants who can organize their learning constructivist, primarily teacher-centered, highly goals with their prior knowledge and skills. MOOC structured, a mix of abstract and concrete content, also can be expressed as follows (XLpro Training focusing on convergent answers, relying on feedback Solution Private Limited, 2015), generated by learners, focusing on individualistic learning, possessing a mix of authentic and artificial alignments, and setting the user role in the middle between active and passive (as cited in Babu and Ali, 2018). The other types of MOOCs are available in the society, and they are such as SPOCs (Short, Private Online Courses), VOCs (Vocational Open Online Courses), SOOCs (Selectively Open Online Courses), mini-MOOCs and mobile MOOCs, etc. (Weller and Bridgman, 2016). From the definitions above, MOOC is generally defined as “It is an online education system which A Platform for MOOCs aims a large scale enrolment of participants to The medium in which the MOOC contents are access free education on the web with the features transferred is called a platform for MOOC. Varsity, like texts, videos, quizzes, assignments, and online Open2Study, Miriada, Coursera, edX, Future Learn, examinations and it can be accessed anywhere and Udacity, Udemy, Master University, Alison, Canvas, anytime.” Codecademy, etc., are the MOOC platforms (Raju, 2018). Many platforms are available in society, and Types of MOOCs some of them are briefly explained below, with the There are different models of MOOCs available, help of the table included in the article by Nisha and and it has its courses and mode of delivery. The Senthil (2015). following are the types of MOOCs. • Alison – It is a not-profit organization that started • cMOOC Model – It insists on autonomy in in 2007 in Ireland. They provide 600 courses creation and creativity and also developing freely, having the participants up to 4 million. social network learning. This model focused But a nominal charge is collected for issuing the on the creation and generation of knowledge to certificate for completed classes. the learner. MIT courseware, Open University, • Edukart – It is a profitable Indian organization and open learning are examples of this type of established in the year of 2011. MOOCs. • Iversity – It is a nonprofit organization established in 2011 in Germany. It has above
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5 million participants and no charges for the achieve this goal, the Ministry of Human Resource certificates. Development (MHRD) of India initiated such • edX – It was founded by the collaboration of an excellent learning portal of SWAYAM. It Harward and MIT as a nonprofit organization was originated with the idea that Consortium for and started in the USA in the year of 2012. It Educational Communication (CEC) had developed featured video lectures, virtual laboratories, 87 e-content for undergraduate students through and discussion forums. It has a unique feature 21 media centers, and they have been utilized that the registered participants can receive the worldwide by millions of participants as short courses mail whenever the courses updated and have (Consortium for Educational Communication multi-lingual supports. It has above 3 million [CEC], 2018). An indigenous portal SWAYAM has participants with 415 classes, and participants been lightened with the collaboration of MHRD and need to pay an amount for the certificate All Indian Council of Technical Education (AICTE) according to their courses studied. with the assistance of Microsoft (MHRD, 2018). • Open Learning – It is a profitable Australian SWAYAM is a buss word and the combination organization launched in 2012. But they first letters of ‘Study Webs of Active Learning were charging a nominal cost for issuing the for Young Aspiring Minds.’ It was announced as certificate. a MOOC platform in August 2014 and took two • The Open University – It is a nonprofit years for shaping. Finally, it comes into service on organization in the UK that came to serve in August 15, 2016 (Chauhan and Chauhan, 2018). the year of 2012. It provides 230 courses and SWAYAM was furbished with additional features, has above 3 million participants and charging and the furbishing works were completed on 27th nominal fees for certificates. June 2017 (MHRD, 2017). Hon’ble Indian president • Coursera – It is started by the USA in the year Pranab Mukherjee formally launched SWAYAM on 2013. Compare to other platforms, this is a 09th July 2017 (MHRD, 2018), and he said while profitable organization, but it does not claim any launching, the SWAYAM portal “enables one to charges for a trail period. It provides above 10 take courses offered by the best teachers, remaining million participants and providing 839 courses where they are. SWAYAM should be a call to the with a pre-defined schedule. pioneers amongst teachers to put new courses in the • Udacity - It is also a profitable organization like upcoming areas on this platform in the MOOCs”. The a Coursera established in the USA in 2013. person who wants to take a course from SWAYAM, he/she undergone the process of four quadrants, and MOOCs in India they are briefly explained below, In the year 2018, the Ministry of Electronics • e-tutorials - This is the first quadrant which and Information Technology [MEIT], mentioned comprises of video lectures, and it also The digital India program is a flagship program includes audio-video, multimedia, animation, of Government of India with the vision that to simulations, virtual labs, video demonstration transform India into a digitally empowered society and state of the art pedagogy. and knowledge economy. India has digitalized many • E-content/e-text – The second quadrant includes of the aspects in its administration, like railway reading materials like self instructional materials, computerization, land record computerization, illustrations, PDF, case study, presentations, e-district, e-panchayat, etc., In the positive way related links, documents, open-source content of digitization, India has introduced remarkable on the internet, research papers, and journals for milestone is introducing ‘SWAYAM,’ a Massive e-text and it can be downloaded. Open Online Course (MOOC). The three viewpoints • Discussion forum - Third quadrants deal with of education are access, equity, and quality. India a discussion between the course coordinator is facing a challenge that knowledge must reach and the learner’s regards to their doubts and the unreached and providing it to the massive. To clarification.
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• Assignment - The fourth and last quadrant is a Ministry of Human Resource Development self-assessment part, which could be in the form (MHRD) has constituted 8 institutions as National of multiple-choice questions, fill in the blanks, MOOCs Coordinators for developing and delivering Quizzes, Short and long answers, assignments, MOOC courses to all over India. It also entrusted and frequently asked questions. An assignment the responsibilities to the NMCs to supervise the is duly checked by the course coordinator, and subjects, which is fully covered. The following table the feedbacks will be updated, and the learner has been developed by the authors with referred can view their feedback on their desktop page of SWAYAM portal for courses offered by NMCs, and SWAYAM. they are given in table 1. Table 1: National Wide List of NMCs Total No. of S. No. of Students Successful Name of NMC Subject Specification Partnering No Courses Enrollment Certification Institutes University Grants Non Technical/Engineering 1. 133 263 284766 9289 Commission (UGC) Programmes Indian Institutes of 2. Management, Bangalore Management Programmes 3 58 144561 3383 (IIMB) All India Council of Technical/Engineering 3. Teacher Education 7 132 255565 -Nil- Programmes (AICTE) General Programmes, Consortium for Management Programmes, 4. Educational Natural and Applied 19 356 518172 8524 Communication (CEC) Science Programmes, and Social Science Programmes National Institute of Technical Teacher Teacher Education 5. 3 22 65598 961 Training and Research Certificate Programmes (NITTTR) Indira Gandhi National Non Technical/Engineering 6. Open University 3 52 91458 962 Programmes (IGNOU) National Council of School Programmes 7. Educational Research Food Nutrition for Healthy 8 75 75870 -Nil- and Training (NCERT) Living National Institute of 8. Out of School Education 1 130 2942319 -Nil- Open Schooling (NIOS) National Programme on Sciences, Humanities and 9. Technology Enhanced 26 1660 8163683 631545 Technologies Learning (NPTEL) Total 203 2748 12541992 654664 NMCs have a responsibility in choosing the the course anywhere and anytime. All the course Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and they are contents were hosted in ‘SWAYAM Cloud’, and it requested to host courses taught in e-classroom from is supported 3 crore users and 10 lakh concurrent 9th to PG in various disciplines. Those courses are network connections in the few years. delivered through MOOCs, for anyone can access
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Merits of MOOCs some are free. With these supportive passages, the Each MOOCs platform has its own merits and author of this paper concluded that Massive Open demerits even though the common merits of MOOCs Online Course (MOOC) provides the opportunity platform are listed below. to access the content anywhere at any time of this • Free Registration – All MOOCs permit free universe. registration • Less Cost – Participants can access the course References low cost Babu, Sameer. M., and Sarwat, Ali. “Massive Open • Open Access – It is easily and freely accessible Online Course Platforms as a Potential Genre • No boundaries – There are geographical for Progressive Professional Development of boundaries to access the learning content, any Teachers.” University News, vol. 56, no. 43, one access the content from anywhere of the 2018, pp. 22-28. universe “Central Institute of Educational Technology.” • Anytime – Participants can access the content MOOCs for School Education, 2018, http:// anytime that is the content is available at 24r7. ciet.nic.in/MOOCs for school educartion. • Collaboration – It permits to peers collaboration pptx. from any parts of the universe Chauhan, Rashmi. and Sangeeta Chauhan. “Massive • Model of traditional Method – It consists of Open Online Courses: Opportunities and traditional course materials, and the lectures are Challenges in India.” University News, based on lectures vol. 56, no. 45, pp. 8-13. • Automated process – It is automated in providing Digital India: Power to Empower, Ministry of contents, testing, and quizzes Electronics and Information Technology. • High-quality content – The contents are 2018, http://www.digitalindia.gov.in. developed by capturing high-quality video Icke, Amy. “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Using machines of high rated resource persons MOOCs to Support Teacher Education.” • Linear instructed – The courses are organized Impact Journal of the Chartered College of and delivered in a linear manner Teaching, 2019, https://impact.chartered. college/article/anyone-anytime-anywhere- Conclusion using-moocs-support-teacher-education. Massive Open Online Courses is an education Josesheba. MOOC, 2016. https://www.slideshare. system that permits a large enrolment worldwide. net/josesheba/mooc-ppt. It is a new paradigm shift in the present scenario, Longstaff, Emily. “How MOOCs can Empower and it makes an impact on the global education Learners: A Comparison of Provider Goals system. There are three types of MOOCs are and User Experiences.” Journal of Further available like as MOOCs, xMOOCs, and Quasi and Higher Education, vol. 41, no. 3 2017, MOOCs models. There are 400 MOOCs platforms pp. 314-327. available, and some of the important platforms are Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), 2015, Alison, Coursera, edX, Iversity, and Udacity, etc., slideshare.net/XLProTraining/massive-open- India initiates the SWAYAM portal with the aim online-course-mooc-56548688. that access, equity, and quality education to the Nisha, F. and Senthil, V. “MOOCs: Changing massive through MOOCs. SWAYAM provides Trends Towards Open Distance Learning 2748 MOOCs, in that above 1.2 crore students were with Special Reference to India.” DESIDOC enrolled, and above 6.5 lakh students have completed Library & Information Technology, the course. MOOCs have features like low cost, open vol. 35, no. 2, 2015, pp. 82-89. access, and make collaboration. The main feature of Raju, Vasantha. N. Massive Open Online Courses the MOOCs is that the participants can access the (MOOCs) in India: A Study of Swayam, content anywhere and anytime at a low cost, and 2018, https://www.slideshare.net/Vasanthrz/
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International Journal of Education s han lax # S I N C E 1 9 9 0 massive-open-online-courses-in-india-a- Waleed Al-Rahmi. “Massive Open Online Courses study-of-swayam. (MOOCs): Data on higher education.” Data SWAYAM, National MOOC Coordinators, 2020, in Brief, vol. 22, 2019, pp. 118-125. swayam.gov.in. Weller, Martin., and Bridgman, Sarah. “Exiting SWAYAM: Free Online Education, Ministry of Types of MOOCs and Approaches to MOOC Human Resource Development, 2017. Didactics.” MOOC for the World of Business, 2016.
Author Details Dr. K. Suresh, ICSSR Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Education, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, India, Email ID: [email protected].
Dr. P. Srinivasan, Professor and Head, Department of Education, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, India.
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