These days, there is a lot of chatter about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), but are they really effective. Last summer I learned about a Gamification course being offered on Coursera, which was led by Wharton Professor, Kevin Werbach. I signed up for the course, but at that time four weeks of the six-week course had already been completed so it was stressful to complete a six-week course in two. They offered the course again, and I am taking it.
I am taking the Gamification course because I am looking for ideas on how to make The Invisible Mentor blog more interactive. I saw two other courses which I have signed up for as well. In the Gamification course, there are over 60,000 people signed up from all over the world, so this makes it impossible for a professor to mark your assignments. I uploaded the homework assignment, and part of the process is that you have to mark each other’s assignments – I had to mark five assignments as well as rate my own assignment. I quickly realized that I have absolutely no interest in grading assignments.
Effectiveness of Massive Open Online Courses
Forums are also a big part of Massive Open Online Courses, and I must admit that I always have intentions of participating in forums but seldom do. I have yet to visit the forum for the Gamification course. I am sure that some will find Massive Open Online Courses to be effective learning tools, but how much of what you learn in such an environment, do you retain. In a recent article in New York Times, in reference to a course on Coursera, the writer commented that although the instructor was great, he didn’t retain the information. I think that I will retain the information from the Gamification course simply because I have more than a fleeting interest in it, and because I have bought the professor’s book, For The Win (my review), and I have three additional books to read on the subject.
I recently attended the webinar, Can Game-Based Learning Improve Learning Impact? offered by Chief Learning Officer. And it turns out that online learning is not as effective as game-based learning. Game-based learning also has a higher retention rate of course information because the learner spends a lot of time doing. For instance, in traditional online courses, you spend about 80 percent of the time learning the information and 20 percent of the time doing assignments – applying what you have learned. With game-based learning, 10 percent of the time is spent on learning the information, and 90 percent of the time applying what you have learned. In summary, engagement, skill proficiency, post-training confidence, retention of learning skills and application of newly acquired skills are higher for gamed-based learning courses than for online learning courses. Wikipedia offers some statistics on Massive Open Online Courses.
Formula for Game-Based Learning
Gamification + Simulation = Game-Based Learning
I think that Massive Open Online Courses have a place, especially if you have an interest in a topic, but if you are thinking of taking a Massive Open Online Course, which has information that is critical for the work you do, to make sure that you get the most from your learning, immediately apply what you learn to increase the amount of information that you retain.
Top Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
You can find a list at About.com
What has been your experience with Massive Open Online Courses? Please write your comments in the box below. Book links are affiliate links.