INTRODUCTION
MOOCs: Some Descriptions1
·
An MOOC (massive, open, online, courses) is similar to a course given at a prestigious
university. The similarities include lectures, a syllabus, assignments, exams and a
start and end date. The difference is the student can learn from their own home
at no cost;
·
MOOCs are revolutionary because they are often
taught by renowned professors from famous universities such as, Yale and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and they're provided at no cost;
·
With MOOCs, students pay no tuition to take
classes that would normally cost thousands of dollars;
·
A MOOC is:
o Massive: Large amounts of
information are being shared with a large number of people;
o Open: The information is
available to anyone;
o Online: The course is
accessible via the Internet; and
o Course: It is a class on
a specific topic taught by a professor, complete with a syllabus and lesson
plans.
Objectives:
The objectives of this posting are:
·
To define/describe MOOCs for those newly joining
us, and;
·
To provide some guidance on MOOC websites and courses
that will serve the need of various interest groups.
If you find something interesting
in this posting, note the Reference Number (in superscript). Then click on the corresponding
link under REFERENCES below to obtain more details. This posting concludes with
a hint of what to expect in the next posting.
SOME RECOMMENDED MOOC
WEBSITES
For High-School
Students2
· The best MOOC for high school students is KhanAcademy
·
KhanAcademy has hundreds of short,
easy-to-understand lessons at the high school level. Some of the many subjects
covered include math, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, economics,
history, civics and test prep for the SAT, GMAT and California Standards Test.
For Rigorous
College-Level Courses2
·
Not all MOOCs are designed to simulate real
college courses with homework, exams and timetables for completion;
·
The MOOCs at Coursera are taught by renowned
professors at world-famous universities.
These courses are made to be as difficult as a real college course;
·
Courses are usually offered at no cost, but they
have an enrollment date, a recommended workload to fill a certain number of hours
per week, and a series of exams and assignments to complete. There are no
grades, but students who successfully finish the course receive a certificate from
the instructor.
For People on
the Go (i.e. People who Travel a Lot) 2
·
Don’t be tied down by your computer or your
classroom. With iTunes U, you can find lectures and lessons from hundreds of
colleges and universities and then download them straight to an iPhone, iPod or
iPad with the iTunes U app;
·
Best of all, it’s completely native to iTunes.
If you have an iTunes account then you have all you need to get started.
For People
Interested in the Humanities2
·
There isn’t a specific MOOC website for students
interested in the Humanities, but there are lots of options. Coursera has a
wide selection of choices on several topics;
·
For students who just want to expand their minds
by watching lectures without submitting to the rigors of a real college class,
Open Yale Courses is an excellent resource of classes that cover many subjects. Open Yale Courses was selected as one of Time
Magazine’s Top 50 Websites of 2011.
For People
Interested in Computer Science2
·
Without question, the best MOOC for students
interested in computer science is Udacity. Udacity has courses for every level
of student. They also allow you to take those
courses at your leisure and they are completely dedicated to computer science;
·
If you’ve exhausted your resources over at Udacity,
be sure to check out EdX.org or the computer science section at Coursera.
For People
Interested in Hobbies2
·
Do you want to learn how to knit socks, practice
yoga and play the electric guitar? Udemy is the MOOC website for you;
·
Udemy’s format is a little different than all
the other MOOCs out there. Anyone can create his or her own course on any topic
for the whole world to study.
MOOCs For
Engineering Students
Fundamentals of Electrical
Engineering3
·
Anyone interested in exploring technology will
fit right into this course offered by Rice University through Coursera.org. The
course discusses “the creation, manipulation, transmission, and reception of
information by electronic means.” Furthermore, this course includes topics on
both analog and digital signals and how we extract and change the information
encoded in these signals;
·
The professor recommends knowledge of both
differential and integral calculus as a prerequisite to the course.
Introduction to Engineering3
·
Due to the nature of engineering’s many
applications, there aren’t many courses that act as a survey of the entire
field. If you wanted to take a basic engineering class at a college or
university, you typically had to pick an intro course to a specific discipline;
·
To fix this, Duke University’s Pratt School of
Engineering created this course as “a broad overview of what is going on in the
school.” Now you don’t have to chose between chemical, mechanical, biomedical or
nuclear engineering. You can learn a little bit about all of them and decide
which you are most interested in pursuing.
Introduction to Chemical
Engineering3
·
If you’re just getting started in college and
think chemical engineering might be right for you, consider trying this
introductory course taught by a professor from Stanford University;
·
In addition to engineering topics, the course
also discusses applications for chemical engineering, which can be just as
important in the oil industry as it is in diagnosing disease and innovating in
organ donation.
Civil and Environmental
Engineering3
·
This iTunesU course from the University of
California, Berkeley, deals with civil engineering;
·
Civil engineering focuses on the design and
construction of roads, buildings, bridges and other manmade physical
structures.
Introduction to MEMS Design3
·
This MOOC, also taught through UC Berkeley,
introduces a specialized topic pertaining to both electrical and mechanical engineering
called MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems);
·
MEMS are the technology behind devices that
generally range from the incredibly small size of 20 micrometers to one
millimeter. Printers, microphones, gyroscopes, accelerometers and pressure
sensors are all devices built or improved upon by MEMS.
Engineering Statics3
·
Statics refers to “the study of methods for
quantifying the forces between bodies;”
·
Students who aren’t quite ready to tackle tough
engineering courses, but aspire to become an engineer in the future can benefit
from Carnegie Mellon’s MOOC on statics;
·
Statics is an important prerequisite for
branches of engineering like mechanical, civil and bioengineering that can be taken before getting into more specific engineering topics. It does not require
any calculus and only basic physics courses are recommended as prerequisites.
MOOCs For
Students Who Like Science
Introduction to Solid State
Chemistry4
·
This is a first-year level course
taught by a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
· In this course, the student will learn about the real world
applications of how chemical bonding and electronic structure relates to the
field of engineering;
·
According to the professor, understanding the
connection between chemistry and its applications is “the most important
tool…to come up with new inventions.”
Quantum Mechanics and
Quantum Computation4
·
The University of California, Berkeley, teaches
this MOOC through Coursera.org. The
course requires no previous experience with quantum mechanics but still maintains
a rigorous level of work;
·
Quantum mechanics is one of those courses that sounds intimidating, students either love it or cringe at it;
·
Topics covered in this course include the
fundamentals of quantum algorithms and the building blocks of quantum computers. This is a cross-disciplinary class that
students from math, physics and computer science will find engaging and
challenging.
The Atmosphere, the Ocean,
and Environmental Change4
·
For those interested in environmental science,
Open Yale Courses from Yale University has a course on the processes that
control the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and climates;
·
The course topics include: storms, ocean
currents, seasons, atmospheric conditions and global warming;
·
The course discusses “the physics in how the
atmosphere and the oceans move.”
Autism and Related Disorders4
·
For any science major interested in learning
more about the autism spectrum and related disorders that affect human
socialization this course is for you. This MOOC is taught through iTunes U with Yale University and is a
seminar course that covers diagnosis, assessment and treatment of children and
adolescents with autism;
·
Each lecture is given by a different medical
professional, so students are open to a variety of opinions and research.
Exploring Black Holes:
General Relativity & Astrophysics4
·
MIT’s OpenCourseWare has selected lectures and
course materials and uses the study of black holes and how they affect the
physical world around them to teach concepts in general relativity,
astrophysics and cosmology;
·
This class discusses well-known physics
concepts, but gets into very theoretical territory. The professor even
suggests, “You might be able to use certain black holes to travel to another
universe.”
CONCLUSION
This posting has presented a summary of what's available
in the MOOC world to generate awareness and interest regarding MOOCs. What has not been mentioned, is how MOOC
students need a higher level of self-motivation compared to "regular"
campus-students, in order to succeed in their study. For this reason, the next posting
will focus on tips and advice to assist MOOC students in successfully
completing their courses.
WHAT NEXT?
To search for your first or next MOOC from a list of over
7,600 courses arranged under 13 subject areas, please click here.
REFERENCES
Posted by Dr. Nat Tuivavalagi
