I did a 6 week MOOC on statistics from Coursera. I am a Math and Chemistry teacher and I did the course to upgrade my own knowledge. I wasn't working at the ti

I did a 6 week MOOC on statistics from Coursera. I am a Math and Chemistry teacher and I did the course to upgrade my own knowledge. I wasn't working at the time and I was able to put in about 10 hrs a week. I was impressed. It was better than any other face-to-face uni courses I had done. I liked the interaction with other students. There was a forum and a Facebook page where we helped each other. I liked getting study notes from other students and I liked guiding others in solving the problems. A video was better than sitting in a lecture hall, suffering from information overload and unable to stop the lecturer. A video I could pause and take notes. I could rewind to hear something explained again. It took about an hour to get through a 20 min video. Originally the videos had no text, but, following an outcry from the students, text was supplied. For me, notes would have been better: I could have listened to the video, using it to expand the notes. What was wrong with the MOOC? A thousand and one things if you simply counted the number of pages in the Forum. - Video presentations are too dry. - The assessment doesn't match the videos. - Videos have to be supplemented with text. - The course description doesn't clearly explain what prior knowledge you need. The saying "You cannot please all the people all the time" springs to mind. What are deal breakers for MOOC? Paul Graham believes that online learning will more easily cater for uni courses than school-based assessment. The block he says is the bureaucracy oversight that surrounds schools. Why does this bureaucracy exist? To protect and nurture the family's greatest asset, the children. In advanced economies, with children no longer working beside their parents in the fields, schools are a means of ensuring one's children are safe and learning skills that will generate an income in the future. As one teacher with grown-up children explained it to me: "Schools will always be necessary - with both parents working who is going to babysit/teach their little darlings?!"