SpencerChris


 * MOOCS **

Massive open online courses or more commonly known as MOOCs are a great way to take courses that are quick and easy online. Every day you hear something about another college offering MOOCs. MOOCs are growing bigger and bigger every day and eventually there will be more people taking the online courses than the people actually going to a campus.

Why would people spend $50,000 year to go to a college when they could get the same exact courses online and for free. You also get the choice of taking the courses whenever you feel like it. The courses have the same material and information that it would if you were taking courses on a college campus. They have gotten bad reviews until elite colleges in the U.S. started having them. When some of the best colleges started having online courses, they started becoming more and more popular and getting good reviews. Between September 16th of 2012 and September 20th of 2012 the definition of MOOCs changed. It went from “a course where the participants are distributed and course materials are also dispersed across the web.” to “ A type of online course aimed at a large scale participation and open access via the web.” Even though it is not one on one education you can still take all the time you could need. There is also a bad side to MOOCs and people taking them. People can cheat just to pass the course they are taking. While the people are taking the courses they can look up the information to use for the questions. That’s not good because if the person that took the class goes to apply for a job they would not have learned the necessary material for the job. College professors are trying to figure out a way to decrease the ability for people to cheat on the courses they are taking.

There is a good side to MOOCs and there is a bad side to MOOCs. It can be a more efficient way of learning but also may not help you in your future if you cheat. For people who don’t have enough money and/or time to go and take courses on a college campus, MOOCs are a great alternative to getting a college degree.