There's been a lot written about massive
open online courses (MOOCs), but what do college students think? A survey of
undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found they appreciate
the potential of MOOCs, but have concerns about reliability and quality.
The study, What do current college studentsthink about MOOCs,
asked participants eight open-ended questions on their perceptions and
attitudes toward MOOCs compared with press coverage of the courses.
“Students currently enrolled in MOOCs
constitute a population of early adopters of a new technology,” the authors of
the report wrote. “For MOOCs to be widely accepted as effective means of
education, MOOCs must achieve a critical mass of users to either align with, or
overcome, prevalent existing students’ attitudes toward higher education.”
The survey found that 81% of the responding
students said they had concerns over the reliability of MOOCs and 52% worried
about the content used. While 58% held positive views of MOOC accessibility,
49% had concerns about a lack of guidance from instructors and 40% were
troubled by a lack of communication options with the instructors teaching the
MOOC.
Researchers concluded that many students
feel the information presented through MOOCs is not of the same quality as that
in a traditional college course. The students also felt feedback from
instructors was too slow. Another significant issue was the fact that MOOCs
don’t always offer college credit.