Information Technology Revolution - Case Study Example

? Unbundling/MOOC Case Study of the Computer Science and Information Technology of the Teacher October 7, Unbundling/MOOC CaseStudy Introduction There is no denying the fact that in today’s globalized world marked by information technology revolution, it is possible for a lifelong learner to engage in diverse opportunities for education. Though it was the Western liberal education that revolutionized the scientific and knowledge based approaches that redefined the developed world, yet, it is a fact that the process of acquiring education gradually got standardized and generalized over the years, extending meager encouragement to a yearning for self study and need based knowledge acquisition. In that context, it will be interesting to analyze and critic the avenues for knowledge and skill acquisition available to the modern day students that are face-to-face, online and MOOC and to suggest as to when MOOC is suitable for a specific student? Face-to-Face Course Delivery Face-to-face education happens to be one of the oldest and most preferred and popular mode of knowledge and skill acquisition. Though face-to-face knowledge acquisition served many purposes, one major flaw with this approach is that it standardized and regimented the approaches towards knowledge and skill education and made them revolve around degrees and diplomas (Holmberg, 2006). Face-to-face education made the education systems and frameworks more important than the actual objective of knowledge and skill acquisition (Holmberg, 2006). It made the objective of knowledge acquisition revolve around academic institutions and course designers, thereby extending minimal incentive for self learning. Thereby it would not be wrong to say that a face-to-face education though revolutionized the Western education systems, it also confined the scope for knowledge and skill acquisition by limiting it to school and college premises, teachers and course designers (Holmberg, 2006). Thereby, though the face-to-face course delivery has its advantages, yet, it tends to be a very limiting and restrained approach towards education. Online Course Delivery Format Going by the limitations of the face-to-face course delivery method, the online course delivery methods offered some salient improvements over the pure face-to-face course delivery that in a way made the educational approaches more students oriented and facilitated an open ended approach towards knowledge and skill acquisition (Bacon& Bagwell, 2008). Online course delivery encouraged the students to be more participative in the overall education process and made education more readily accessible and available (Bacon & Bagwell, 2008). Online course delivery offered to the students a more liberal approach towards education, which allowed them to pattern their academic life around the domestic and career facets of their life (Bacon & Bagwell, 2008). It immensely reduced the amount of time and resources spent on getting education and made education a resource that happened to be easily accessible to anyone (Bacon & Bagwell, 2008). It provided to the students a measure of say in the designing of the learning materials and to customize the education approaches in consonance with their needs and requirements (Bacon & Bagwell, 2008). Online course delivery somewhat severed the education process from being concentrated around academic institutions and organizations and made the education system free of the constraints of time and space. The learning modules offered by the online course delivery allowed the students to pace the learning process in accordance with their learning capacity and other salient needs and requirements (Bacon & Bagwell, 2008). It introduced an element of remoteness in the world of education where the students could visit the teachers and instructors anytime and at any place (Bacon & Bagwell, 20080. Online course delivery encouraged interaction between the course participants and instructors that was quiet impossible in the highly dense face-to-face learning approaches. However, one major lacuna with the online course delivery was that it still regimented the learning processes around degrees and diplomas and still severed the need for learning from the skill and knowledge acquisition intentions that happened to be independent of labels and happened to be oriented around real life problems and issues (Bacon & Bagwell, 2008). The other big issue with online course delivery was that though it made the need for knowledge and skill acquisition less resource intensive, still it required a degree of resource dedication on the part of the learners. In an environment dominated by information technology and with the advent of new hardware and software possibilities, the contemporary education system yearned for an approach towards course delivery that happened to be more open and less resource intensive. MOOC Course Delivery Format It goes without saying that the latest MOOC course delivery formats have entirely revolutionized the conventional approaches towards education. The original approaches towards MOOC course delivery relied on a two way meaning of the word ‘open’. First and foremost the MOOC course delivery formats tended to be open to the students that lay without the domain and scope of the hosting academic institutions (Callaghan, 2013). Secondly, the course materials used in the MOOC course delivery formats relied on the creative commons licenses for their licensing needs, so that the education materials offered by the MOOC course delivery formats could be remixed and reused by others (Callaghan, 2013). It was this dual approach towards the notion of openness that happened to be the very foundation of Open Educational Resources (OER). The thing that needs to be understood is that the MOOC course delivery format still happens to be s course in the formal sense of the world, though it has done away with many constraints and limitations imminent in the face-to-face and online delivery formats that made the need for education cluster around academic institutions, teachers and course designers (Callaghan, 2013). One way MOOC happen to be courses in the sense that they do subscribe to the inbuilt assignments and assessment systems just like the way students tend to have assignments and evaluations in the academic institutions (Callaghan, 2013). Most of the MOOC course delivery formats tend to subscribe to on the way quizzes and end of the course exams (Callaghan, 2013). It is also possible for MOOC to affiliate to more subjective approaches to evaluation like creative projects and essays. These evaluations may be done by the software, peers or teachers. The other ways that MOOC happen to be a course are that they do subscribe to a completion point. The other thing that is so peculiar to MOOC course delivery formats is that they happen to be massive in the sense that they happen to be online courses that could be accessed by anyone and anybody (Eugene, 2012). Therefore, while deciding as to whether a MOOC delivery approach is suitable for an academic aspirant, one does need to understand as to what one could expect from a MOOC and what learning and skill acquisition requirements one affiliates to. For instance if any specific student tends to associate learning with the acquisition of formal degrees and diplomas as offered by many formal online courses, MOOC may not be the right choice for one. However, if an individual associates learning with the more serious and less formal objective of pure knowledge and skill acquisition sans formal degrees and diplomas, a MOOC course delivery format may be the right choice for one (Eugene, 2012). One essential thing about MOOC course delivery format is that it does not require a learner to show formal degrees and diplomas to validate all the learning and skills acquired by a student in a class (Eugene, 2012). Thereby, MOOC happens to be a more pragmatic and applied approach towards course delivery. Hence, MOOC is a natural choice for learners who subscribe to a more applied and less resource intensive approach towards learning and are placed in locals that are less accessible to the acquisition of the skills and knowledge they aspire to assess. Conclusion Conclusively speaking all the available course delivery formats are they face-to-face, online or MOOC tend to have their pros and cons. In that context, MOOC happens to be a natural choice for a learner who is more interested in knowledge and skills acquisition rather than collecting formal degrees and diplomas. References Bacon, P.S., & Bagwell, D. (2008). Creating Online Courses and Orientations. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Callaghan, B. (2013, September 27). MOOCs Spark a Revolution in the Education World. The Journal, p. 33. Eugene, O.R. (2012, November 21). Here Come the MOOCs. The Register Guard, p. A8. Holmberg, B. (2006). Theory and Practice of Distance Education. New York: Routledge. Read More