{"id":5095,"date":"2021-02-18T08:29:36","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T08:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/18\/moocs-what-exactly-are-they\/"},"modified":"2021-02-18T08:29:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T08:29:36","slug":"moocs-what-exactly-are-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/18\/moocs-what-exactly-are-they\/","title":{"rendered":"MOOCs: What Exactly Are They"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOOCs: What Exactly Are They<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The rise of e-learning opened the doors to massive amounts of information that was previously available only to the learned scholars. In the past, if you were interested in some quality academic knowledge, you either had to ask an expert in the field, check out your local library, or enroll in classes offered by a higher educational institution. Nowadays, with the help of MOOCs, you can start learning whatever you want with a single click.<\/p>\n

What makes MOOCs so special?<\/h2>\n

The term \u2018MOOC\u2019 was coined in 2008, and it stands for \u2018massive open online course.\u2019 Such programs are aimed at large-scale participation bringing together thousands of people from different parts of the world. They originated as a part of the open educational resources movement<\/a>. The idea behind this initiative is to democratize access to knowledge and make it available to anyone willing to learn. The only prerequisite students have to meet is having a computer or mobile device with a decent internet connection, as the educational content is delivered via online platforms. Though the format differs from conventional classroom activities, MOOCs remain a well-structured collection of learning materials on a particular subject with integrated assessment activities.<\/p>\n

Massive<\/h3>\n

Exploring the possibilities of reaching a massive audience was one of the key drivers of MOOC development. From the very beginning, the goal was to allow interactions between a wide variety of participants, overcoming the limitations posed by traditional face-to-face classes.<\/p>\n

One of the first \u2018official\u2019 MOOCs, entitled Connectivism and Connectivity Knowledge<\/em>, enrolled nearly 100 times more people online than it did on campus. This course, led by Stephen Downes and George Siemens, had 25 students attending lectures at the University of Manitoba, with a further 2300 from around the globe participating via the Internet. Only three years after that, in the fall of 2011, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence<\/em> launched by Peter Norvig and Sebastien Thrun had reached a whopping number of 160,000 international students attending the same classes online.<\/p>\n

Some of the most popular MOOCs<\/a>, such as Machine Learning<\/em> from Stanford University, The Science of Well-Being<\/em>from Yale University, and Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects<\/em> from the University of California (San Diego), each claim over 3 million participants worldwide. And we\u2019re not at the top of the mountain yet. There are no technical constraints limiting MOOCs\u2019 final size, so in principle, they have infinite scalability.<\/p>\n

Open<\/h3>\n

Openness can be seen from different perspectives in MOOCs. First of all, there is no admission process for potential students. Learners are spared from having to pass entrance exams or undergo applicant interviews. Their prior qualification, academic performance, or educational level don\u2019t have any significant relevance as well. Anyone willing to take part only has to fill in a simple registration form and then hit the \u2018enroll\u2019 button.<\/p>\n

MOOCs allow students to explore the desired subject without the financial burden associated with traditional university studies. The learning content is usually delivered in the interactive video format. This means students don\u2019t have to spend a penny on hefty textbooks and optional reading materials. Moreover, most courses are offered for free, though some providers may charge a small fee for a verified certificate of competition.<\/p>\n

Online<\/h3>\n

The course is delivered over the Internet, so learners can access their classes wherever they are. There is no need for students to attend on-campus lectures, study groups, or seminars. Instead, MOOCs have brought professors and instructors from renowned universities into living rooms and coffee shops all over the world.<\/p>\n

Although the course is done remotely, it doesn\u2019t mean that learners are set adrift. As MOOCs attract a large audience, they can also enable the formation of massive online learning communities. There are discussion forums and message boards that facilitate social contact between students and their instructors or fellow peers. Here, they can ask questions about the program and help others by replying to their inquiries.<\/p>\n

Course<\/h3>\n

Just like any other course, a MOOC is a plan of study with specific learning objectives students have to achieve over a given period of time. However, the online format implies that participants can enjoy the liberty to study whenever they want to. MOOCs usually run in asynchronous mode, so people have the opportunity to schedule their learning sessions around their other commitments.<\/p>\n

Another key difference is that there are rarely any end-of-course exams students ought to take. There are only weekly quizzes and peer-reviewed assignments, but they can\u2019t provide the same knowledge assessment as proper instructor feedback. Yet, some educational institutions offer graduate-level programs, like MicroMasters and Nanodegrees, which require deeper understanding. Students enrolled in these courses should prove their comprehension of the covered materials through a series of writing assignments. So if you are earning your degree online, you can occasionally use a writing service by writepaper.com<\/a> to get some help with your essays.<\/p>\n

Why do MOOCs matter?<\/h2>\n

Online courses are suitable for different types of learners. They can be vocational training for those willing to improve their job prospects, develop business-focused skills, or change their career path. High-school students can use them as a means to explore various subject areas in preparation for their university studies. College undergraduates can also benefit from online courses as they can augment their campus classes and deepen their understanding in specific areas. Furthermore, taking MOOCs is a great practice to support one\u2019s lifelong education.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Published at Thu, 18 Feb 2021 06:33:45 +0000<\/p>\n

Google to reorganize AI teams in wake of researcher’s departure<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

\nGoogle <\/a>will restructure its responsible artificial intelligence efforts to centralize teams under a single executive, according to people familiar with the situation, as the internet giant tries to stabilize groups working on ethics research and products after months of chaos.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The Alphabet Inc. unit is expected to announce the changes as soon as Thursday, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private information. Google has sought to diffuse employee rancor stemming from the acrimonious departure of a prominent Black researcher, Timnit Gebru. The responsible AI teams will roll up to Marian Croak, a Black Google executive who currently serves as a vice president of engineering focused on site-reliability matters. Croak will report to Jeff Dean, the senior vice president of Google AI.<\/p>\n

Also Read <\/strong>| Why bitcoin won\u2019t become like money<\/a><\/p>\n

Croak will oversee the Ethical AI team that\u2019s become the focus of intense scrutiny as well as employees on other fairness teams. These include people working on machine learning, computer-vision systems, natural language processing and those who engineer fairness products, one of the people said. Megan Kacholia, who attracted employee criticism after dismissing Gebru, will no longer oversee these researchers, the person said.<\/p>\n

Google representatives didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.<\/p>\n

The crisis began in early December when Gebru, who\u2019s best known for showing how facial recognition algorithms are better at identifying White people than Black people, said she was fired by email. Google claimed it accepted her resignation after a conflict over an AI research paper critical of its technology that Google executives demanded Gebru retract or remove Google authors from. Her dismissal upset the Ethical AI research team she co-led, with members of her group taking to Twitter to publicly support her and criticize Google.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, a group of Google artificial intelligence researchers sent a sweeping list of demands to management calling for new policies and leadership changes. Five weeks ago, Google also sidelined the other leader of its AI ethics research team, Margaret Mitchell, locking her out of its corporate network.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Google has turned to Croak to handle the issue. A few days after Gebru\u2019s dismissal, Croak moderated a meeting of Dean and Kacholia on one side, and researchers and the Black Googlers Network on the other.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/span> Enter a valid email<\/p>\n

*<\/span> Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Published at Thu, 18 Feb 2021 05:15:00 +0000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOOCs: What Exactly Are They The rise of e-learning opened the doors to massive amounts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/gsemzm.jpg?fit=1130%2C565&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3orZX-1kb","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}