I am afraid I am not convinced of the idea that Futurelearn is all about
free global access to knowledge and education. Some might even say it is a
rather imperialist method of exporting higher education as a commodity,
which, all of the universities involved already do, or are desperately
trying to.
However, when they do finally launch the MOOCs this year it will be
interesting to see how the model works/can work.
I am a big advocate of mass education in the form of making resources and
knowledge available. Teaching and educating, however, is a set of skills
that (forgive me) add value to this knowledge and help transfer it from one
generation to the next. No teaching staff are going to be involved in
delivery, unless they give of their time as part of the learning community
itself:
"Due to the large number of students studying MOOCs, learning support comes
from the online learning community rather than academic staff. Equally,
assessment of MOOC courses includes peer-assessed written assignments and
computer marked tests."
So what exactly are the Futurelearn partners providing here? And what
benefit are they seeking (apart from a great shop window to recruit for
paying courses and to draw in more funding - nothing wrong with that but
the motives have not been made entirely clear).
Those interested in MOOCs might also like to look at Udacity:
https://www.udacity.com/ (upon which I am certain FutureLearn has based at
least part of its model).
And see also the Khan Academy, arguably the first attempt at mass open
online educational resources/how-tos/mini-courses:
https://www.khanacademy.org/
I also wonder why these initiatives are almost
exclusively partnerships between the big national repositories while the
collective resources of smaller institutions who could really produce some
stunning material are left chasing their tail (until of course they get
bored and move onto the next thing as happened with Creative Spaces and
WebQuests). They claim to be 'elite' without being 'elitist'. What century
do they think people in India live in?
Why do we also assume that owing to its sheer size that Open University
offers the best model of online education? Those who have had to grapple
with its internal tutoring system might have something to say about this.
My Friday grumble out of the way ;-)
Best wishes,
Tehmina
On 21 February 2013 16:50, Colin Hynson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> **
> Dear all,
>
> News has come through that British Library is providing resources for
> MOOCs (Mass Online Open Courses) through Futurelearn.
>
>
> http://futurelearn.com/news/prime-minister-welcomes-futurelearn-expansion-as-british-library-and-five-universities-join/
>
> Are MOOCs something that museums should start thinking about?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Colin Hynson
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--
Dr Tehmina Goskar, MA AMA
[log in to unmask]
Heritage Consultant & Historian -- Industrial Heritage -- Digital Heritage
-- Collections Management -- Interpretation -- Research
http://tehmina.goskar.com/
Twitter: @tehm <https://en.twitter.com/tehm>
Join History 51: Unveiling Women in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly:
http://www.elizabethtreffrycollection.org/
Read about my research on copper: http://copper.goskar.com/
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