The absolute majority of teachers make a very good impression; they are experts in their field and are highly respected. At the same time, they are skilful promoters of their science. My genetics teacher, for Math skills for kids example, once brought a puppet doll depicting Charles Darwin to his lecture. And a philosophy professor, explaining the logic of time travel, put on “steampunk” glasses. And their inventions are not wasted.
At each lecture, I learned something new – wow, so that’s what the balance of Nash! – And it doesn’t matter that the next day I could forget it again.
Sometimes my classmates would write huge reviews of the lectures on Facebook. But in most cases, my students were quite happy with their classes. And often they are just delighted!
“My boyfriend is jealous of this charming professor!” – writes one of the students of Professor Zelikov in an Internet discussion about his cute https://argoprep.com/blog/elementary-math-how-to-boost-math-skills/ smile. And another student adds: “Now, when I read something, my head sounds like the voice of the professor, not Morgan Freeman, as it always happened. The third discussant leaves his comment on the super cool professor sweater. Some professors are literally elevated to the rank of pop stars.
Conclusion: If MOOC courses provide equal opportunities for all students, all teachers cannot expect equal opportunities. Online teachers become the rulers of dum, and therefore I feel sorry for people who only teach offline. For they remain far behind.
Convenience: an “A”.
MOOC training is managed by the student. Whether I train on a treadmill, ride a train or even eat spinach salad – all this time I can listen to online lectures. If a cosmology teacher falls asleep on the move, I can double the player’s speed; and a lecture from an epistemology teacher who talks at gun speed, I will, on the contrary, listen at lower speeds. The second season of my favorite series starts, and the beer cools down in the fridge? Well, I can postpone the lecture on game theory. Or vice versa, I can give it my preference; however, it is hard to believe in it. If I saw that the professor wrote the word “accuracy” on the board, I can pause and check if he really made a mistake. Can you imagine he made a mistake? Okay, I will not bully my nose!
As Gautam Kaul, professor of finance at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, inspiredly said, “I can sometimes be just nuts. But if you don’t like what I say, just turn the lecture https://argoprep.com/blog/k8/math-playground/ on from another place. You do not sit in an auditorium where you would have to listen to me for an hour.
However, whether it is convenient for you or not, but if you want to finish the course, you still have to make time for lectures. And this is one of the reasons for the high dropout rate of online students. Coursera’s bioelectricity course, taught by a Duke professor, was overwhelmed by only a measly 3 percent of students enrolled. My personal dropout rate, if any, was lower. I signed up for 11 courses and finished two: Introduction to Philosophy and Modern World. General history since 1760″. And all why? Yes, because these two courses offer relatively little load and a minimum of scientific terminology. Actually, to be honest, I have not yet got everything smooth with the history – I am still stuck in the 1980s.
It’s easy to throw away what I got for free. And the online yearbook feels much better than the real yearbook. So quitting online courses is no problem. At least, until they came up with something like virtual “stupid hats” for the expellees.