Friday, June 19, 2015

MOOC : The new face of pedagogy

Pedagogy i.e the art of teaching has evolved ever since the Gurukul days.  Some prominent and observable changes are

  1. Medium of Delivery 
  2. Teacher Student Ratio 
  3. Technology 
  4. Student Attention Span 
  5. Evaluation
With the advent of technology, teaching has reached a whole new platform. World is flat and millions of students can learn from all corners of the world seamlessly at the same time. Though the factor of personal touch is missing , this is the new norm.

I have a personal experience of living through this evolution. As a kid i have had a Gurukul kinda experience. At school and college my curriculum evolved from a chalk and talk to a Powerpoint , smart board and tele presence mode. Over the past few years i have been embracing this new mode called MOOC ( Massive Open Online Courses). This is truly groundbreaking. I can sign up for any course of my choice conducted by eminent professors from various esteemed institutions at my will and collaborate with students from across the globe , imbibe new ideas and complete a course at no cost.

Yesterday's fiction has become today's reality. This reminds me of a scene in the movie Matrix. Trinity is in a dire need to fly a helicopter but has no prior experience or training. She calls Tank to load the helicopter flying program. Within minutes she is able to fly the helicopter. When this is scaled up to today's real world, it just takes a few months to become and expert in some unknown field with the help of MOOC.

The best part of it is accessibility to lectures from pioneers in the field. This is a disruptive idea considering the  situation of current educational system but change is good. I feel MOOC cannot totally disrupt traditional pedagogy but can definitely create a huge impact. One of the handicaps is it can reach only those with access to good internet connectivity but measures are being taken to make the globe interconnected.
Happy MOOCKING !!!

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