In Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), the teacher is “dispensable”. Personally, I believe that MOOCs are a wonderful way to offer courses to the public, and thus allow any individual to receive an education or learn about a topic they wish to learn about.
MOOCs also create a social network, where students can learn from one another and from the course content. However, in my opinion, MOOCs are lacking use of the personalization principle, which many learners prefer to see. As a learner myself, I am more engaged in a course when I can relate to my instructor and fellow learners. This establishes a sense of community—which is essential for creating a Community of Practice or a Learning Community.
Additionally, MOOCs neither provide thorough confirming and corrective feedback within activities and assessments nor provide personalized feedback from instructors and/or peers. This is another area where MOOCs are lacking.
Connectivism is so interesting as a modern learning theory. However, I hope that Augmented Human Intelligence (AHI) ultimately prevails over Artificial Intelligence (AI). The human brain is amazing, and it should be here to stay and continue to grow in complexity. The brain has increasingly evolved and gained complexity over time, and it is still evolving. We must let human intelligence live on, and computers can assist human intelligence. Teachers should be indispensable, and humans in general should be indispensable.
AI’s capabilities help provide education for more students, however the main question to ask is as follows: is the educational quality as high in educational settings led by AI (such as MOOCs) as in educational settings led by human instructors, and if so, should we allow educational quality to be compromised, in order to allow more individuals to receive an education in this AI-led format?
I am realizing that educators, educational technology specialists, and information technologists are all at the forefront of this debate, but also all humans should think about this.
This is a slightly uncomfortable and scary topic to me, because the thought of computers replacing humans is almost unfathomable. But, all of this is happening right now, so this discussion must take place right now.
Thanks so much for learning with me!
~CLL