MOOCs: A Student’s Perspective

Networking is one area most students struggle to excel in. However, becoming part of a MOOC community can be a way to establish links with all sorts of people looking to work in the same industry as you, on a global scale – providing a ready-made international network.

You also regularly interact with authority figures on the course, both everyday and visiting lecturers. Some MOOCs even offer one-to-one video feedback and discussions on your work, although sometimes you have to fork out a little money for that. The connections you establish during this time may come in handy when you least expect it; for a couple of people in my class they have already led to work experience opportunities.

Sound too good to be true? There are a lot of people who think it is, and that MOOCs may threaten the education system as we know it by offering the same service as universities but for free.

In fact Phonar, the MOOC I took part in, ran simultaneously in the traditional university environment as well as online, meaning my regular classes and lectures would be recorded and uploaded for the masses, allowing the online class to then engage with the content. This gives me a pretty rounded view on the differences between the physical course and the virtual course.

While the international exposure, feedback, online community and networking opportunities provided by MOOCs are hugely beneficial and unique to the online platform, the one-to-one experience and intensity of studying at university means that it’s hard to get the same experience online as you would on a full-time/ part-time course.

While most MOOCs run for a just few months, the experience of a university course requires a long-term commitment to learning. Due to set deadlines and examinations, university is not generally something you can switch off or work on just when you get round to it. Most students also invest a lot of money in university, and are therefore likely to invest more time and effort than they may do on a free online course.

Despite these points, the opportunities offered by MOOCs should most definitely be taken advantage of!

To conclude, I recommend anyone interested in education to get involved in MOOCs, but I would also point out that you shouldn't go into a free online course thinking you are getting the full educational experience. Think of university as the whole cake and a MOOC as one free slice.