Reflections on Stanford's MOOCs

Reviewer: Barry G Blundell

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are attracting attention and have the potential to significantly impact the traditional model for tertiary education. The authors of this article briefly outline milestones in the evolution of MOOCs, with particular reference to Stanford University. This article is likely to be of interest to readers who would like rapid insight into how MOOCs developed; current aspects of the MOOC approach; and key areas of ongoing study and development. In this latter respect, the authors discuss key issues of validation, plagiarism, certification, extended student evaluation techniques, opportunities for personalized education, and hybrid models. Of particular interest is the section concerning personalized education. Here, the authors refer to the extensive volume of data that can be harvested from massive courses delivered electronically. For example, the available data describes how students interact with electronic learning systems, and so provides the opportunity to personalize and optimize human learning. In addition, the authors highlight the opportunity to develop systems capable of presenting information to students using a variety of pedagogical approaches. Hence, a student can theoretically be empowered to select the pedagogical approach that best suits his or her preferences. This topical article contains a considerable amount of summary information on MOOCs. It is written in an approachable way and provides references for further reading. Online Computing Reviews Service

Reviewer: Stewart Mark Godwin

The evolution of online education continues, with numerous institutions of higher education moving to adopt massive open online course (MOOC) environments. The opening of quality university course materials to the general public has caused considerable disruption to the traditional educational paradigm. This article reflects on Stanford's experiences with the MOOCs they offered in the fall of 2011, when the school released a trio of courses in the areas of artificial intelligence, databases, and machine learning. The authors highlight the fact that Stanford has offered online video and television course content since 1969, and that the current online offerings present many of the challenges from the past. The most discussed issues include the authenticity of student assessments and the detection of plagiarism in student submissions. The potential of this educational model is that it will provide astute organizations with a wealth of student data on all aspects of student learning. This article will be of considerable interest to educators working in online environments. Online Computing Reviews Service