Journal 9

Massive and Open

Fasimpaur, Karen. "Massive and Open." ISTE.org. N.p., 4 Mar. 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.

Summary

I read "Massive and Open" by Karen Fasimpaur, which is an article that discusses massive open online courses (MOOCs) and how they are providing options for teachers to develop and advance their skills. These MOOCs are classes that are generally offered for free online, which means that the courses can be accessed by anyone, from anywhere. This aspect of MOOCs is very appealing for busy teachers who may not have time to be able to commit to traditional courses.there are even MOOCs that are specifically created for kindergarten through grade-twelve teachers. One of the interesting things I read was that some courses end up with a strong sense of community despite most or all of the members never meeting in person.

About how many students participate in each MOOC? 

The number of students that have participated in these courses have varied greatly. Some courses have less than 100 students while others have reported over one hundred thousand participants sign up. Many courses are offered for free to all of these participants, but do charge them for certification.

How many students complete the courses?

The article cited some very interesting stats for one MOOC offered through MIT. Fasimpaur stated that about 155,000 people registered for the first course they offered in 2012. By then end only 7.151 passed the course, which is about 4.5%. Anant Agarwal, a professor at MIT said that it would take 40 years  for that many students to take that course at MIT.