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Very much this. I think a large issue with MOOCs is that they're too focused on emulating the structure of a university class - focus on lectures, community bui
by Chathamization 7y ago
Very much this. I think a large issue with MOOCs is that they're too focused on emulating the structure of a university class - focus on lectures, community built around specific classes, focusing on the metric of course completion rather than on attaining skills, etc. People who successfully teach themselves things (and right now, there are many people using the internet to teach themselves things) often have a very different approach.
It's interesting that so many people have trouble even considering that there might be other ways to approach education.
- hos234 7y agoPeople who "successfully" teach themselves are overrated (good examples being Trump or Zuckerberg). They might be successful in a few dimensions (purely out of self discipline and above avg energy levels) but totally miseducated in many others because people don't know what they don't know. Without the right guides, feedback processes, environment and time(lots of time) most people usually end up taking all kinds of wrong turns. Education not something intuitive, even if there are many paths. If it was we would just be leaving kids in libraries.
- jdc 7y agoYour point that self-education often tends toward narrowness is well-taken, but I strongly disagree with the implication that any significant number of autodidacts are overrated in the way that your two examples are.
- ekianjo 7y agoThe rate of 12 years old kids who can barely read suggest that current school systems don't work too well either, so what do you suggest?
- benj111 7y agoTrump graduated University, so how are you defining self educated? Zuckerberg received an honorary degree, which suggests the University approved of what he learnt. If you're pointing at education as the cause of the problem for these 2, structured education bears at least some of the blame because it should have been teaching the tools for further learning.
- mnky9800n 7y agoI think the Microsoft edx moocs have solved this problem pretty well. They are typically focused on a more narrow topic, they are shorter (usually around a month), and they are very explicit on the weekly time required and this actually matches. I've used msft edx to learn bootstrap and their azure machine learning platform and they were there best moocs I've ever taken.