The future of education

In Bangladesh, with the sheer number of universities sprouting in every street corner like mushrooms, the average quality of university education is, arguably, dipping. Even in reputed universities, it is all a matter of luck depending on how good your teacher is and how ardent a student you are to ensure the quality of the education you receive. Add to the fact that there are many courses which are not offered at a lot of the universities and it becomes clear that there is a wide gap between what people want to learn and what is being taught. For burgeoning young professionals who are looking for an edge and who want to stand in out in an ever competitive job market or for fertile minds, the internet has the answer and that answer is the MOOC.

What is a MOOC?
I hear you ask. MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course and while the name is certainly not a pretty mouthful, they are certainly not to be taken lightly. MOOCs are courses offered online by some of the world's most reputed universities and as the name suggests, they are available to anyone with the time and an internet connection. And massive is an understatement; Generally enrollment per course for any MOOC is in the thousands and they deliver a high quality education for free to the people of the world. Depending on the site, there are assignments, tests and of course lectures given. Each site also has a large community, encouraging participation of the students through forums, to help each other out with problem sets and other questions.  

History of the MOOC
Distance learning has been in practice throughout the western world for almost a century. Correspondence courses have been taught by radio and by mail for many a year and in 1994, a seminar taught by James O Connell was streamed to five hundred students using the internet. From there, with the inception of websites such as Khan Academy, which focuses on short focused videos for high school and college students, the idea of online education through short videos gained traction. The first MOOC, in industry literate, was founded in Ireland in 2007 and is named ALISON (Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online). From there, the MOOC bubble expanded. Big name universities like Harvard and MIT have joined the MOOC band wagon with edx and even Stanford University recently offered all of its courses online for free.
Some MOOCs do not follow the free education band wagon and offer both free and paid courses as well.

Where can I get me some?
The top content providers are Coursera, Udacity, Udemy and edx. As of April 2014, Coursera has 7.1 million users in 641 courses from 108 institutions.Udacity has 1.6 million users and is much more computer programming related. They offer 12 full courses and numerous courseware, though they do focus more on computer programming and mathematics courses. Edx offers the curriculum of Harvard and MIT and offer a wide range of courses which would be found in any traditional university. Udemy offers more vocational courses; courses in Yoga, home decorating and photography can be found quite abundantly on the Udemy site.

Is it right for me?
It depends on how diligent of a student you are and how ardently you wish to learn the course material. MohsinaZaman, A CSE student from North South University had this to say.
"I did a course on Coursera. Compiler construction. I watched the lectures mostly and I didn't do any of the assignments. Mainly I used the lectures to better understand the course material that was being taught in class but I never completed it."
When asked why she didn't complete it, she said "there is only so much studying I can do. I had my university workload and I couldn't handle any more with that."
That is the main caveat with MOOCs; having the tenacity to finish them. Whilst the number of students who enroll in any given class in the thousands, the number of people who actually finish them are significantly smaller. Out of 10000, only a few hundred will complete all of the assignments and sit for the final exam. Experts cite that the main reason for this is that there is nothing to lose by not completing the course. Since the process is largely voluntary, a student is free to come and go whenever he chooses.

What about job value?
Sadly, the universities involved do not offer any form of accreditation for completing the courses. Unless, of course, one pays for it. At Coursera, a certification, upon completion of the course will cost roughly a hundred dollars. Ultimately, it is the skills you learn from the courses which are going to determine how much value you are to your employer.

But for people who love to learn and who want an edge at work, a MOOC is a great place to go. It is an excellent and more importantly free way to augment one's education and even dabble in something new.  For the purposes of this article, I took a course at Udemy on Photography and I can say that the course has greatly improved my skills. I now have a better understanding of my camera and can shoot in manual pictures which are not completely underexposed or blurry.