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tl;dr: What's at stake here is the proper roles of ed tech in education. MOOCs are media, only one part of the ecosystem that is developing here, and I think t
by eah13 14y ago
tl;dr: What's at stake here is the proper roles of ed tech in education. MOOCs are media, only one part of the ecosystem that is developing here, and I think that finding a central role for great educators is key.
Coursera and other MOOCs are media properties that monetize viewership (thorugh certificates rather than ads). As media properties, michaelochurch and others are right that the synchronous model isn't really going to work in the long term.
I think ed tech should be about connecting teachers with the content they need to teach (and I'd include self-educators amongst 'teachers' here). Students need synchronous access to teachers, but those teachers don't necessarily have to have created that content just now. This suggests that online education might look more like a 1:100 teacher-student ratio rather than 1:100k. Nothing's more motivating and engaging than a human being.
Personally, my best experiences have come from two sources: self-study from great materials and guided study from great teachers. This suggests that a role for ed tech might be connecting great teacher with great content rather than broadcasting teacher-as-content. Personalization, engagement, motivation, etc all come for free if we empower great teachers rather than seek to replace them.
It's misguided to think that some professor from a great school can best deliver the content to all audiences. Imagine great open content accessible to every teacher for use in their own classrooms. With an inverted model of teaching, the lets them push content out to the students for self-study and then have synchronous classes where they, the teacher, can motivate and customize the delivery of tough concepts for their particular group of students.
- silverlake 14y agoWe are following this model with LearningLine (www.learninglineapp.com). We offer an optional "class" format where an instructor is available to answer questions and review homework. With most eLearning, when students hit a topic they don't understand, they have to figure it out themselves. Some will quit when they hit this wall. Our instructors are there to help students keep going. No more web searches for help, just send a question and an instructor will answer and even get on Skype to explain in person.
- eah13 14y agoInteresting. I see you have a lot of courses on offer and are 'powered by DevelopMentor'. Are you affiliated with them or serving as a portal/add on to their existing content?
- silverlake 14y agoDevelopMentor built LearningLine. LearningLine is a general purpose online learning system, sort of like Udemy. DevelopMentor produces content for developer training. We have a bunch of partners developing additional training material. LearningLine is actually free for others to add their content into it. Our focus is on getting high completion rates. In fact our instructors are paid when students complete a task, not when students sign-up.
- eah13 14y ago> In fact our instructors are paid when students complete a task, not when students sign-up. Interesting model. I like the thought of trying to align student and instructor motivations. Getting paid for engagement is a great way to do that. I wonder, though, if it puts pressure on the difficulty of the tasks? Can instructors game this system (if they wanted to, as I'm sure most don't) by the types of tasks they assign, thereby potentially impacting the quality of your content?
- silverlake 14y agoSorry, that whole bit about paying instructors is just for DevelopMentor's paid content. We review all our content and instructors to ensure high quality. We are obsessed with this problem of retention and completion. Our partners can put whatever they want in our system. So far our partners are providing free classes to train their customers on new products and features. If a customer learns all the features in your product, it becomes stickier (hopefully).