Updated version of the post (Topic 2)

Through reading Topic 2 resources, I noticed that both distributed learning and open learning involve e-learning. In “25 years of ED technology”, Martin Weller pointed out that the golden age of e-learning began in 1999, because that stage belongs to the period when e-learning is separated from the experimental process and enters the public vision. I noticed that he mentioned the cost of e-learning, which is very concerned by both students and capitalists in today’s society. This problem involves students’ tuition fees, capitalists’ profits and other problems. I think the cost directly affects the development progress of e-learning. I linked this issue to the changes in tuition fees in higher education institutions during the pandemic. At first, it was thought that studying at home would reduce the overall tuition fee, but the reality did not. I think there are two main reasons. The first is that e-learning requires high research and development costs, such as: the research and development costs of brightspace. The second point is that e-learning needs some different websites to maintain the teaching quality, such as: zoom. In general, although e-learning reduces a series of lower costs, such as: commuting cost and venue cost, it is  still has higher fixed costs than traditional offline teaching. It only changed the allocation of resources, but did not reduce the input of resources. I think in the period when e-learning is not necessary, school can reduce the online courses with low demand of students to ensure the balance of payments.

In reading ‘Teaching Online : A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice’, I found a new word: massively open online courses (MOOCS). This kind of course is more inclusive than traditional online courses because anyone with enough technical tools can choose to take these courses. They open these courses to people who don’t need credits. I think the advantage is some courses are free, but compared with traditional online courses, this kind of course has a large number of students in one class. I think this course can be used as a way to enrich the traditional online courses in our university. For example: My major is economic, and I can go to take some MOOCs courses which about economics to learn some knowledge outside the traditional online courses. This way can enrich my professional knowledge. I think this is very useful because it plays the role of preview, review and accumulating experience for future work. Like many people who want to enrich their lives, I have high expectations for MOOCS courses. However, while highly recognizing this course, we should also be rational enough to think whether this course has completely completed its mission. The main significance of MOOCS is to let people learn more knowledge, contact more people and get more ideas at low cost. But the reality is slightly different from our ideal situation. I will analyze the reality through two phenomena. The first is that the low cost causes many people not to study MOOCS seriously, and they are likely to give up halfway. Unlike traditional courses, the cost of MOOCS courses is almost zero. Many people will think that even if they give up halfway, they will not lose anything. But I think it’s a waste of time. I think the only way to improve this situation is to make the course content more interesting. Some activities like signing in and getting rewards can be held. If students sign in successfully for each class, they can get some rewards at the end of the course. The second situation is that some shy students are unwilling to communicate with others. This situation goes against the goal of MOOCS course to share idea. I think the way to improve this situation is to organize more group activities. According to the personal information such as age or personality, arrange group members with more common interests for them to discuss together. This method may make them willing to share their views with others. 

From another perspective, if I am a teacher, I think opening the MOOCS course will enrich my teaching experience because the network has too many serendipities. There are more students in MOOCS which means that both students and I will get more diversified feedback. It will help to enrich my teaching methods. In a word, I think it is very beneficial to develop MOOCS course under the condition of ensuring that students receive enough high-quality teaching.

References:

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)

Weller, M.(2020). 25 Years of Ed Tech. https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781771993050.01