Tap tap tap is now the chime heard through hallways across America stemming from calculators, tablets, or keys on laptops. In the modern day, these tools are the new slide rule, essentially the newest and coolest technology that has capabilities of impacting the learning experiences of students from Pre-K to graduate school. These new tools are consistent with the rapid advancements in technology we experienced in a society. By using these tools to aid in the learning process of new materials, we can enhance the classroom experience while remaining up to date with progress made in technology. MOOCs are just one of the many results of introducing technology into higher education and in many ways they have had a tremendous impact on the system. MOOCs are defined as “massive open online courses” and since 2008 have provided an untraditional learning atmosphere for a variety of students and they have served as a catalyst to some extraordinary opportunities.

Aaron Brady, the author of “The MOOC Movement and the End of Reform” and an editor for New Inquiry, participated in a discussion about MOOCs and how they have impacted the educational system thus far. Referring to a Higher Ed’s article about MOOCs, Brady quotes the following, “These days the acronym [MOOCs] is omnipresent and needs no definition” (para 3). Brady quickly counters this quote though by stating, “…this apparent lack of definition is exactly why we need to slow things down and figure out what the heck we’re talking about” (para 3). Brady countered with that response because although he thinks that MOOCs have value to them he thinks that they might be growing too rapidly before society can establish a sense of what a MOOC really is. But when you have an educational system that is now delivered through the medium of technology, which is always rapidly changing, it can be hard to come up with a concrete definition of what these ‘MOOCs’ really are. That’s what Higher Ed’s was trying to state, that this is a new phenomenon that cannot really be defined as something so concrete as traditional education but as something more broad or causal because there isn’t a set criteria for what MOOCs really are. I agree with Higher Ed’s because it shows that MOOCs are becoming something in society that is universally accepted. It has qualities that are universal because they are used all over the world and in many demographic groups thus leading to something that is widespread and relatable for many people. On page 443 Brady gives a statistic that “16,000 students from 190 countries” (para 4) all partook in the same MOOC and were united by the common factor of knowledge. Therefore, a formal definition would be nice but is not a necessity due to the common knowledge of these ground-breaking classes.

Sebastian Thrun is a former professor at Stanford University that left to create the startup Udacity. He is just one example of how teachers are leaving the classroom environment so they can then teach through MOOCs. Now if you go on Udacity and sign up to take part in the lessons offered you won’t see Mr. Thrun himself but other people who will be teaching you the skills and concepts. The homepage will direct you to many different subjects where you can take different lessons in certain areas of study or take them to work towards a Nanodegree, an online certification that takes about 6 months to a year to earn for a very low cost with sponsors like AT&T and Udacity. To see how credible these lessons where I clicked on an area that I already had experience with, the Java programming language. I sat through the first couple of lessons that were delivered as short YouTube videos. By using these short videos as lessons Mr. Thurn is catering to the common demographic that will use the MOOCs, the teenager. Studies show that teens tend to “…pay attention in cycles of 10-15 minutes” (Brady, 444).  All the information provided seemed to be consistent with what I learned my fist couple of lessons when taking the class in high school. The anchors, people who described the different concepts in Java and aided you to learn the information seemed to be very educated in what they were talking about. Also, there are interactive lessons like quizzes that test your progress and ability to retain the information that is provided via video. By experiencing these videos and lessons for myself I think that MOOCs can be value in a wide range of subjects. There is another website, www.MOOC-list.com, that has a wide variety of courses you can take as well. I searched for a writing class to see if MOOCs were just for the technical side of things yet found many search returns. When I clicked on the course titled, “Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest”, there was a course description and information on who will be teaching the course. The names were a type of hyperlink that allowed you to read a short biography on the instructor which showed that these people teaching these classes will be a credible source.

By going to the sites and partaking in the MOOCs I can justify my support for MOOCs and how they are positively impacting higher education because they are credible sources and provide very closely the same experience a student will receive in a traditional classroom setting. This evidence I discovered refutes the claim on page 446 that MOOCs are not equivalent to education received in a university setting. These lessons and participation activities resemble online textbooks which are used in many college courses and sometimes mandated by the professor due to their interactive nature.

Over time we have made advancements in technology and it only makes sense that our educational system would develop in relation with it. There are always going to be positives and negatives about anything that is new and innovative but overall MOOCs are a creditable and good medium for students to gain knowledge from.