Moocs have become new and fast growing means for studies around the globe.

3. This presentation on the topic of moocs
is an inspiration and collection of facts
from different scholars who have taken
a critical look to analyze and study how
moocs came in to eixtance, how it
function and their importance in the
society.

4. CONTENT.
 What is mooc?
 The birth of open learning.
 Brief history of moocs.
 Characteristics of moocs.
 Types of moocs.
 Benefits and downsides of moocs.
 Discussion.

5. What is mooc?
MOOC is an acronym for;
M= Massive
O= Open
O= Online
C= Course

6. What is moocs cont…
Mooc is a Massive Open Online Course.
It is an online course aimed at unlimited
participation and open access via the
web. In addition to traditional course
materials such as videos, readings, and
problem sets, MOOCs provide
interactive user fora that help build a
community for students, professors, and
teaching assistants (TAs). MOOCs are a
recent development in distance
education(Mzwandile helper mashinini )

7. What is moocs cont…
Although early MOOCs often emphasized open access
features, such as connectives and open licensing of content,
structure, and learning goals, to promote the reuse and
remixing of resources, some notable newer MOOCs use
closed licenses for their course materials, while maintaining
free access for students.

8. The birth of online learning.

9. The birth of online learning cont…
Moocs all started in 2008 but three years ago, the modern massive open online course, or
MOOC, came to prominence when a Stanford computer-science professor named Sebastian
Thrun made his artificial-intelligence course freely available to anyone with an Internet
connection and 150,000 people signed up. Mooc allows students the chance of tuning into
courses from universities like M.I.T., Harvard, Berkeley and many others. Coursera, the
platform established by a couple of Stanford computer-science professors, Andrew Ng and
Daphne Koller, has more than 400 courses in seven languages from 87 academic partners
and some 4.7 million students. EdX, the nonprofit platform established by M.I.T. and Harvard,
has 68 courses from 28 academic partners and 1.25 million students. These are just two of
the platforms out there.

10. The birth of online learning cont…
MOOCs began with offerings heavily weighted toward computer science and math edX’s most
popular remain a pair of introductory computer-science courses from Harvard and M.I.T. but
classes now cover everything from finance and law to poetry and music. Higher education is a
sector that has this far been embraced but arguably has not been fundamentally altered by the
growth of the Internet. This has been rapidly changing over the last few years with the rise of
MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses; the way of learning that allows students to participate
on their own terms via the Internet. MOOCs have been embraced in a big way by elite universities
and institutions, and are beginning to have a major impact on higher education.

11. Brief history of moocs.
The evolution of technology and of new learning experiences have
always been closely related. As distance learning specialists affirm, the
field of distance-learning had three main generations which are;
Correspondence study, Multimedia and Computer-mediated.(
Mkhonza,M.L)

12. Brief history of moocs cont…
The first of these distance learning models grew exponentially in Europe and
United States after the Industrial Revolution, especially because a more
qualified work force was needed for the factories. In addition, postal services
were becoming faster, cheaper and more reliable. For example, in the 19th
century, students from Australia were already able take correspondence
courses from prestigious universities, such as the London School of
Economics, one of the first in the United Kingdom to offer distance
education.

13. Brief history of moocs cont…
However, this first generation was still far from reaching massive numbers of students like
MOOCs are doing today. Correspondence study only predominated until the arrival of
electronic media, which lead to popularization of radio and television as educational tools in
the 20th century. Teachers and learners from all parts of the world took advantage of the
new technology. Those who did not have access to formal learning could watch or listen to
classes for free, wherever they were. The content was adapted to reach different types of
audiences, and even students in remote areas could have knowledge in academic subjects.

14. Brief history of moocs cont…
But a main pedagogical factor was still lacking: students had hardly any interaction with
professors or other students. Videotape was used by many distance learning initiatives but
was criticized because of its passivity. The multimedia generation had popularized distance
learning and allowed new possibilities, but only computers and the web could unite forces to
provide a new e-learning infrastructure, mainly built upon networks and communities on-line.
Moocs is an open education movement with an open content and knowledge where by,
leaning is successful if we connect and build relevant networks. Consecutiveness and
connective courses started running in 2008.In 2012, Stanford devised an artificial
intelligence tool, learning machine and a database and the platforms were courser and
udacity.

15. Characteristics of moocs.
1. Moocs is free of charge to all the people interested.
2. It has no participation limitations.
3. There is no formal entry requirement.
4. The virtual learning environment is not the Centre of the
course.
5. It uses a variety of new social networks and tools like
slide shares, google, future learning, class2Go, OER
University and many others.
6. It is a community of practice and sharing where all the
participants are involved in the topic at hand.

16. Types of moocs.
We have three main types of moocs which are;
network based, content based and task based moocs
according to Stephen Downes. Each type of MOOC
has all three elements (networks, tasks and content),
but each has a goal that is dominant.

17. Types of moocs cont…
Network-based MOOCs are the original MOOCs, taught by Alec
Couros, George Siemens, Stephen Downes, Dave Cormier. The goal is
not so much content and skills acquisition, but conversation, socially
constructed knowledge, and exposure to the milieu of learning on the
open web using distributed means. The pedagogy of network-based
MOOCs is based in connectivist or connectivist-style methods.
Resources are provided, but exploration is more important than any
particular content. Traditional assessment is difficult.

18. Types of moocs cont…
Task-based MOOCs emphasize skills in the sense that they ask the learner to complete
certain types of work. In Jim Groom’s ds106 at UMW, the learning is distributed and the
formats variable. There are many options for completing each assignment, but a certain
number and variety of assignments need to be done to perform the skills. Similarly, our POT
Certificate Class focuses on different topics for each week, and skills are demonstrated
through sections on design, audio, video etc. in an effort to expose learners to many different
formats and styles in online teaching. Community is crucial, particularly for examples and
assistance, but it is a secondary goal. Pedagogy of task-based MOOCs tend to be a mix of
instructivism and constructivism. Traditional assessment is difficult here too.

19. Types of moocs cont…
Content-based MOOCs are the ones with huge enrollments, commercial
prospects, big university professors, automated testing, and exposure in
the popular press. Community is difficult but may be highly significant to the
participants, or one can go it alone. Content acquisition is more important
in these classes than either networking or task completion, and they tend to
use instructivist pedagogy. Traditional assessment, both formative and
summative, may be emphasized. Mass participation seems to imply mass
processing.

20. Benefits and downsides of moocs.
Benefits of moocs.
 You can be able to organize a mooc in any setting without
connectivity.
 You can use your own devices.
 You do not need a degree to enter.
 You can connect across disciplines and institutions.
 It enables you to work across time zones and boundaries.
 You can use any online tools that are relevant.
 It helps improve ones longlife learning skills.

21. Downsides of a mooc.
 It demands digital literacy.
 It requires self-directed learning ability.
 It requires more time and effort that
expected.
 It could lead to a feeling of chaos.
 It requires steep learning curves.
 The technology involved could lead to
distraction from the learning purpose and
content.

22. Hot issues in moocs
Some of the hot issues in moocs
are privacy, openness,
completion, impact, pedagogy,
business model and certification.
Discussion.
Some of the fields of mooc that I
will be interested in are;
Psychology of Perception, clinical
psychology of child and young
and Social Cognition.

23. Neuroscience and Behavior, Research and Data Analysis
in Psychology, life skills issues, how people think and what
makes them come to given conclusions or decisions as
well as problems and challenges faced by the youth in the
society and how they over come such situations and move
on with their leaves.

24. In this mooc I will be studying the various methods used in psychology to carry out
researches, how humans think and why they think in given ways when faced to certain
situations . Besides, I will also have to study the health facts and developmental
phases in children and youths.
More so, I will study human behavior in the society and how people inter act and
behave in their societies. Further more, in this field and topics I will also have to study
how the human brain functions.

25. REFERENCES.
Asma,A. The history of moocs. http://www.slideshare.net/Lwazoluhle/history-of-moocs-
31842915?qid=c812d59e-9342-49d1-a162-
d6891a9b85d8&v=qf1&b=&from_search=2. Accesses 04/03/2014.
Mzwandile,H.M. what is mooc. http://www.slideshare.net/g6mzwai/what-are-moocs-by-
mzwandile-mashinini, Accesses 04/03/2014.
END