Khan/Koller Review

The Khan Academy is a very interesting resource. After signing up and exploring the website, my first impression was that the website was very neat, organized, and in depth. I found that this was definitely a site that I would use myself. It has information, lessons, videos, and problems that teach me – as a college student, while also having those same elements at the education level of the students I could be teaching.

Because of the statistics, progress tracking, activity tracking, and other valuable student measurements that the website offers, I would also be interested in using it as a teacher to help teach my students and would encourage them to utilize this resource. One worry for this website would be the difficulty to use the website by younger students. It is a complicated website that may not have the usability that a young student would need. This may be solved by having a parent help the younger students access the website at home. Another worry I have in using this website is internet / computer access at home.

I thought that the videos were well made. One of the history videos that I watch had multiple speakers talking about the subject. This kept my interest in comparison to a single speaker that “drones on”. It felt like the information was presented in a non-lecture way, where I was free to think about the information being presented, pausing where necessary, or even going back to re-watch a particular segment.

I do not think that credentialing through online courses will be the future. I believe it may be a part of the learning process, but the credentialing process will stay in the schools. While I do not believe that this will be the primary style of education, I think that it will make learning and strengthening our minds more accessible and students with the drive to better themselves will have better resources to do so.

            A course that interests me on Coursera is Dog Emotion and Cognition. I like dogs and understanding more about them sounds like fun. The course also sounds different from the normal course, so I am interested in seeing what I would learn.

           Columbus State does not appear to accept Coursera transfer credits.

           I have not taken a course on the website so I cannot say for sure, but the courses do not appear to be more challenging than those I have experienced before. I imagine as long as I pay attention and take the time to learn the material I feel that the course would be as difficult as any other college level class. In terms of interest, being able to pick a subject of study would allow me to learn about what interests me. In the end, who teaches a course has a big impact on the difficulty and how interesting it is presented.

             I think that MOOCs are the wave of the future. I do not believe they will be the only method of learning, but a supplement to how we already learn. It will allow a student like me to go to class and learn like I currently do, but also go home, learn more if I am struggling, cement subjects that I already understand, and become a better-rounded individual by learning subjects that I may not consider in a college environment.