Online courses are nothing new. Many institutions now offer hundreds of online degrees. But a new trend from educational systems is called: Massive Open Online Courses or MOOC. An example of these courses is that Stanford University has done with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Introduction to Databases, which are offered for free online. This is an example of the class:
Results are impressive, as 160,000 students were registered (Waters, 2013). This videos are short length, with practical exercises and on-screen questions that reinforce the learning methods. But in the future this will be obsolete.
As the potential for the software evolves, the educational programs will adapt to different stages of the learning curve, offering a customized attention for each student. Imagine a system where class material or evaluations will be presented to the student according to his interests.
Imagine not also what information can be presented, but how the methodology of the class is customised. For some students, the best way to learn is reading, for others is chatting, and for others maybe making a presentation or playing. The future system will be able of recognise when a student is loosing interest on a subject and offer the best methodology possible to engage him again.
In the future, computes will create a customised learning environment.
References
Watters, Aurdery. (2013). MOOC Mania: Debunking the hype around massive open online courses. Retrieved from: http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/04/featured/got-mooc-massive-open-online-courses-are-poised-to-change-the-face-of-education/
Emerging Media 
Hi,
I love the concept of Massive Open Online Courses. There are many people who would agree that MOOCs are the future of higher education, it there have been many critics of it as well.
Some lawmakers, meanwhile, see MOOCs as a solution to overcrowding; in California, a senate bill, introduced this winter, would require the state’s public colleges to give credit for approved online courses. (Eighty-five per cent of the state’s community colleges currently have course waiting lists.) Following a trial run at San José State University which yielded higher-than-usual pass rates, eleven schools in the California State University system moved to incorporate MOOCs into their curricula. In addition to having their own professors teach, say, electrical engineering, these colleges may use videos by teachers at schools such as M.I.T. But MOOCs are controversial, and debate has grown louder in recent weeks. In mid-April, the faculty at Amherst voted against joining a MOOC program. (Heller, 2013).
I agree that online courses serve a purpose. For one, I am in an online graduate course right now, but its graduate school. I have heard a lot of students are now doing school virtually starting in Junior High School. I guess I wonder about the social aspect of school. I agree with college courses being online, is workable, but what happens when it cascades to elementary, middle and high schools? Do we lose the social aspect of our childhood?
References:
Heller, Nathan. (2013, May 20). Laptop U: Has the future of college moved online? Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/20/130520fa_fact_heller