What's your opinion of MOOCs? Have you taken any MOOC?

[DataGG]

So, MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course.

There're several sites that provide MOOCs, such as coursera.org, edx, udacity, etc.

Have you taken any MOOC? Did you learn anything worthwhile?

MOOC MOOC MOOC MOOC MOOC MOOC

 

[nuuskur]

I have a certain disdain for such things, since they do not help qualitatively, if they do, for very little. It also depends on what kind of a course it is. It just might be old-school speaking, I prefer to be there - see and hear the instructor not through a liquid display and a headset.

Though, I am also lazy. Leaving the house puts me in a different setting versus just swinging back and forth behind the computer blasting some loud music, eating chips and drinking soda, occasionally doing something productive :D In a lecture hall or any classroom for that matter, there is no such luxury, there are rules to abide by.

I tried taking something called (rough translation) Career planning, an e-course. Needless to say, I quit, simply because it does not make me want to engage.

 

[Doug Huffman]

I have tried two MOOC's in maths, an advanced refresher and then a basic start over. Neither was a satisfying experience. I don't differentiate the two in my recollection. The instructor/organizers eventually admitted their lack of experience. The student populations were huge, about 100,000. I volunteered as TA and organized a study group that I tried to define so narrowly as to have a very limited attraction. It grew to 700 members and I threw in the towel.

They may be seen as merely marketing tools for instructors' textbooks and "syllabuses" (them's scare-quotes).

I occasionally enjoy on line/streaming lectures; ATM, Leonard Susskind and Lee Smolin. I find such as TEDx glib, shallow and unsatisfying.

 

[Rocket50]

They're pretty good, just not enough offered in the higher level math/physics areas.

 

[DivergentSpectrum]

i had been participating in khan academy (which i believe is a MOOC, I've never heard of the terminology before) unfortunately it isn't very advanced. MIT however offers Opencourseware which is really top grade as far as a free education goes. (it even contains graduate level video lectures)