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And flipped classroom should be a familiar concept to anyone that has taken a 'seminar' class in college. Basically, everyone reads assigned material and then t

And flipped classroom should be a familiar concept to anyone that has taken a 'seminar' class in college. Basically, everyone reads assigned material and then the teacher leads discussion during class. Flipped tends to use video instead of written material but the classroom experience is similar.

nopinsight 6y ago
There are some similarities but I'd say well-designed MOOCs are quite a bit better that written materials for most students. Videos with regular quizzes & some automatic grading provide semi-interactive experience that is much more motivating to most than reading passive text. For some, MOOCs can be better than live lectures. Many students dare not ask any questions in a lecture room anyway. They can pause to think, review materials if they get a quiz question wrong, and ask questions more openly in the MOOC forum. In addition, the MOOC system can record student's performance in quizzes and some even have an AI designed to detect cheating, e.g. whether the typing pattern of the user is anomalous.
- leereeves 6y ago
  I think MOOCs are as good as a certain kind of live lectures; the kind where the professor copies the text on the whiteboard and students copy it into their notebooks, then repeat it in quizzes and exams. But MOOCs can't compete with the best live lectures, where students have an opportunity for meaningful discussion, challenging and original projects, and building relationships.
  - ryeguy_24 6y ago
    I think I would agree although, but MOOCs can compete with the best lectures, they just can’t compete with the best interactive discussion. Can that be recreated or so we need intimate physical rooms with low class sizes to achieve it?
red_admiral 6y ago
Decades ago, when I was young, we called this kind of thing "homework". It didn't need any kind of brand identity back then. (In case anyone else is as pedantic as me about definitions: yes, there were two kinds of homework. The first was you read something at home, and then discussed it in the next class. The other was you learnt something and when practiced it at home afterwards.)

nopinsight 6y ago

There are some similarities but I'd say well-designed MOOCs are quite a bit better that written materials for most students. Videos with regular quizzes & some automatic grading provide semi-interactive experience that is much more motivating to most than reading passive text. For some, MOOCs can be better than live lectures. Many students dare not ask any questions in a lecture room anyway. They can pause to think, review materials if they get a quiz question wrong, and ask questions more openly in the MOOC forum. In addition, the MOOC system can record student's performance in quizzes and some even have an AI designed to detect cheating, e.g. whether the typing pattern of the user is anomalous.

leereeves 6y ago
I think MOOCs are as good as a certain kind of live lectures; the kind where the professor copies the text on the whiteboard and students copy it into their notebooks, then repeat it in quizzes and exams. But MOOCs can't compete with the best live lectures, where students have an opportunity for meaningful discussion, challenging and original projects, and building relationships.
- ryeguy_24 6y ago
  I think I would agree although, but MOOCs can compete with the best lectures, they just can’t compete with the best interactive discussion. Can that be recreated or so we need intimate physical rooms with low class sizes to achieve it?

red_admiral 6y ago

Decades ago, when I was young, we called this kind of thing "homework". It didn't need any kind of brand identity back then. (In case anyone else is as pedantic as me about definitions: yes, there were two kinds of homework. The first was you read something at home, and then discussed it in the next class. The other was you learnt something and when practiced it at home afterwards.)