Skip to main content

Online education - good value


Have read Move over MOOCs this morning.

Interesting article, but it looks lacking of a more thorough research and only mentions two startups in the online education area. I have been studying with MOOCs for more than a year now and have completed a handful of free courses at Coursera from leading education providers like Stanford University, University of London, Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, Wesleyan University etc.

The courses format is lectures, quizzes, homework, assignments etc. It's definitely helpful.

I indeed enjoyed some of them related to law and economics and social psychology from Wesleyan, law from London university, and Wharton MBA related courses. I personally have only got a limited timeframe to spend on studies so the courses I mentioned fit very well into my schedule. Others require a bit more time to do homework and reading or were not well prepared for the online format therefore I couldn't complete those. However I got a decent knowledge in some areas which I wouldn't be able to achieve with traditional model, because the MOOCs are more flexible and allow me to choose only what I need at the time I am available for it and free.
It is indeed a great opportunity to expand the knowledge in areas that would otherwise require significant effort and investment without any predictable return. I can state that this is a great invention of the recent years.

Have you tried any yourself?

Don't think at the moment it can compete with traditional education, but that's only because current rules of the job market in different professions require entry level based on traditional education system. Which in it's own as a system was built on apprenticeship institutes many centuries ago and allowed business leaders of that time to control and plan properly.

However today we see our reality changing. With these changes we will see natural shift in educational delivery methods.
In regards to MBA, my opinion is that classical MBA programs are not just for knowledge, but also for networking, ideas sharing and creating communities of alumni students. All this of course is achievable online, however in the enterprise or a "proper business" world mentality which was nurtured since centuries ago when universities appeared as a result of apprenticeship system for industries - it is still highly demanded that the education should be in person at the brick and mortar institute/university.

As far as I see now majority of organisations don't see much value in free online courses, but it's only for now - possibly too early and too scary to trust this new way of studies. However I believe this is the significant part of future of education. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scrum - Team Culture and Wall Manifesto

In the Scrum framework one of the key components is the wall and daily stand-up. In some organisations I worked with the whole concept of the wall is not accepted by many developers, because of the stand-up necessity and "time waste". Very often all that methodology is used for the sake of methodology and not to achieve what we actually do - adding or creating value to our customer (usually called "The Business"). I can understand frustration that is caused by the wall and stand-up process. From the software developer perspective it is really a waste of time for the following reasons: 1. In 95% of cases developers are head down working like hell delivering valuable outcomes that they are accountable for. Extra effort to go to the wall, staying there for 15-30 minutes and listening or not listening to what others were doing yesterday and will be doing tomorrow is annoying for them; 2. The mere fact of having to do something mandatory to do that looks like
Post a Comment
Read more

Construction issues resolution in Sydney - part 17

It's been a while since  the last post In January 2016 the owner lodged an application to NCAT against owners corporation to fix three major defects: - waterproofing of large windows in the living room and bedroom which led to windows full replacement - bathroom drain fix - planterbox fix The owners corporation didn't come to mediation and tribunal ordered to fix all defects within 2 months (the deadline was 8th July 2016). The owners corporation as usual didn't rush to comply with the order regarding two items: bathroom and planterbox. The windows works started end of April 2016. At the same time owners corporation decided to check whether it's a warranty and original builder should fix the issues. That was also related to the fact that the variation was submitted by the current contractor who started fixing the defect. So the owners corporation stopped all works in the middle and went off for a month to "make decision". The decision was mad
Post a Comment
Read more

Wine - 2011 Brown Brothers Crouchen Riesling

Very nice wine with fruity taste - peach and pear: Consumed with Hungarian salami. Tasting notes .
Post a Comment
Read more