The Future of MOOCs

Today with the assistance of the computers, humanity is undergoing a digital revolution that shapes our lives in many respects. The higher education field of study is not exempt from it. MOOCs, a place to gain and share knowledge from famous professors and researchers, now is the popular subject of conferences and webinars. Some hold a positive view towards this new technology, claiming that it is the alternative to traditional universities in the future. However, my view on this educational pedagogy is that although it empowers many students over the globe, it never can replace the significant role of traditional universities.

First of all, student-faculty interaction is particularly beneficial to the development of students, which is hard for MOOCs to realize. It is imperative for the supporters for the retirement of traditional colleges to note that face-to-face conversations between professors and students can be enriching both professionally and personally. However, it is extremely time-intensive, especially for the MOOCs teachers who have such a large number of students to teach. One potential argument against this statement is that the students can communicate with the teachers by leaving their comments online. However, it is still time-consuming for experts to reply such a mounting number of questions. After all, it is still a minimal viable product and can never be as convenient as the lectures in reality. Furthermore, the low course completion rates for MOOCs also deserves our attention. Without teachers side by side, it is relatively difficult to ensure that the students are concentrated enough and have taken in the knowledge. Whether MOOCs are sustainable therefore remains doubtful.

Secondly, while providing all citizens with the same education is a noble goal, the realization of it substantially calls for reconsideration. MOOCs feature the most prestigious lectures from the top universities. However, we have to admit that our students are from different levels. A uniform curriculum may be too challenging to some students and frustrates them. Traditional universities can allow their college faculty to design more effective curricula according to the students' capability while the demand of MOOCs students may be overlooked according to the limitations of time and space.

However, MOOCs indeed have their merits. Initially, they are self-paced, which means that students with different learning style can pick up the knowledge at varying paces. It substantially relieves the burden off the students and makes their study more leisurely. Moreover, it allows underprivileged students to pursuit their higher education. In this way it promotes fairness in education to some degrees. Ultimately, MOOCs are in line with the current job market, employees can constantly update their job skills along with the rapid pace of technological changes. However, all the factors above don't mean that traditional teaching mode should cease to exist.

In summary, although MOOCs bring people conveniences and more study options, it still lacks an effective system to measure and validate the progress of the learners. Moreover, without personalized guidance and mentorship, MOOCs can never achieve the same effect of traditional colleges.

本文围绕着慕课展开讨论。 第一段亮明自己的观点： 慕课现在尽管功能强大而且十分受欢迎， 但是它永远也无法代替传统的大学授课。 第二段给出第一个论据： 慕课无法实现传统课堂师生间一对一交流， 往往是一对一交流给学生们的学业发展带来了很大帮助。 而且慕课的完成率并不高， 没有老师的监督学生们很容易半途而废。 作者给出的第二个论据是慕课无法因材施教， 老师无法根据学生们的反应及时调整课程。 第四段作者认可了慕课的优点， 但强调这些优点并不能替代传统教学。 最后一段作者总结前文， 再次强调了传统大学授课模式的不可替代性。