xiaolin's uvic site – I wonder if I put a few words here?

State of MOOCs

Should education have a limitation? Education plays an important role in our lives. Knowledge can change the way we think, and the way we act. Sometimes, it might change one’s life. I think education should not have limitation. No matter who we are or where we are, we should have chances of education. With the development of technology, there are many educational revolutions appear. These revolutions have a deep impact on our lives. They change our society, person, culture, and economy. MOOCs means Massive Open Online Course. It offers many chances for everyone who wants to learn. Besides, it is the course for people to attend without limitation by online learning. MOOCs’ features are opening to everyone and providing free educational resources to the public. In this paper, the state of MOOCs will be introduced. The reason why people choose MOOCs and how it works will be also presented. At last, the positive effects of MOOCs will also be analyzed.

Why Many People Choose MOOCs

MOOCs is a convenient and valuable online learning way. MOOCs is popular because it contributes to everyone. Also, it offers a platform that people can learn without limitation. Nowadays, we have apple pay, so we seldom pay by cash. Also, we submit our assignment online, so there are fewer instructors require student hand in a paper. People like convenient stuff. Convenience is one of the reasons that attract people to learn by MOOCs. People can learn by MOOCs without area limitation. People who have the Internet can attend the course. No matter we are in Canada, Australia or China, we can take the course and learn something from it. Also, people can learn from MOOCs without career limitation. Education is no more just for young people or full-time students. People who play different roles in society can also enjoy education, such as housewife, banker or waiter. What’s more, people get value from MOOCs is positive. In “To Measure a MOOC’s Value, Just Ask Students”, Youngman said that there is a positive value on MOOCs. The main reason why people try to get an official certificate is that they want society to know their effort. Actually, MOOCs can also prove this as well. The employer will prefer someone who is interested in continuous education and put effort into learning new knowledge rather than basing on a certificate (2013). In this competitive society, people will not challenge your certificate. However, people will challenge your ideas which are able to be developed by the MOOCs course. People who have good ideas will have higher competitiveness. The convenience and value of MOOCs worth people taking courses. These also are the reasons that make MOOCs become popular.

How MOOCs Works

Large-scale and openness interaction are two main characteristics in MOOCs. Massive education is one of the features of MOOCs. Massiveness not only contains many learners but also provides diverse subjects for students. For example, as an undergraduate student. There is limitation subject at school. MOOCs provides more interesting subjects to everyone. Also, this large-scale model provides a platform for learners to interact with those who have the same interest as them. It just like a learning community which connects learners together to discuss the topic that they are interested in. Expert for traditional course material, reading, video and problem set, the discussion also assist to learn a course in MOOCs. At the very beginning, the form of e-learning is through TV and radio. There are very few students can finish the course because it is not mature at that time. However, with the development of technology, there is a big revolution in distance education. It changes the way of e-learning a lot. Nowadays, there are many different ways to assist people to learn the online course. In addition, even though MOOCs is a distant education, it can also have a good interaction between learners and teachers. In “Understanding the MOOCs continuance: The role of openness and reputation”, Alraimi, Zo & Ciganek said the openness of education means open to “people, places, methods, and ideas”. Openness connects with the right to freedom to obtain education (2015). MOOCs provides an interactive forum for teachers, learners, and assistance. Thus, people can have a good discussion on their course on this platform. In traditional education, the teachers are the center of the course rather than students. It means what instructors teach is what students learn. However, in MOOCs, the learns are the center of the course rather than instructors. It means learners can discuss and solve problems with other learners. It is a kind of experience of social interaction. More importantly, MOOCs provides an open educational resource. It makes MOOCs is a distributed social learning community. We can also say MOOCs is a platform that people get together and help each other in learning.

What Are The Effects On MOOCs

MOOCs have positive effects on the personal, educational, and social area. For personal effect, there are two kinds of impacts. Self-discipline is affected by MOOCs on the personal area. In the book “Open Education: from OERs to MOOCs”, Jemni, Kinshuk. & Khribi said when traditional education goes to MOOCs, the study mode is from passive to active. In the past, students get knowledge from the teacher. However, knowledge should not just be delivered. Thus, MOOCs is designed to motivate students to join in education (2017). The mode of traditional education is new knowledge is accepted by students. However, MOOCs is an open education which requires learners’ self-discipline. Nobody will supervise you to learn. This results in a problem which is a high drop-out rate. Jemni, Kinshuk. & Khribi said the issue of high drop-out rate is not just because of the problem of MOOCs’ design. The designer will focus more on motivating learners to a participant by gamification (2017). Gamification is a tool that motivates people to do something. MOOCs designer uses it to attract people and make them feel interested in learning online. For an educational effect, MOOCs is an educational revolution. Jemni, Kinshuk. & Khribi said the mode of traditional education to MOOCs is from formal to informal (2017). Traditional education is more like remembering knowledge. And the instructors lead you to find the answer. However, MOOCs is more like opening discussion and exchanging feedback. Learners can solve the problem by discussing with others. Also, this open education mode will lead learners to develop their logic and create more questions rather than just accept the results. For social effects, MOOCs provide more educational equality for students. In “Massive Open Online Course and educational Equality in China: A Qualitative Inquiry”, Tang (2016) said it still exist educational inequality because of gender and the local economy in some remote areas. The government provides less educational resources in remote areas. Also, women or disabled people have less educational opportunities (p.49-50). MOOCs provide equal education chances for people. In MOOCs, there is no difference between poor and rich, or woman and man. If you are willing to learn, there is a chance. Besides, the mode of MOOCs is cooperation instead of competing. In traditional education, there is a limitation bn of the school entrance. Thus, students try to have a higher grade for entering an excellent university. For this reason, students are a competitive relationship. However, the environment of MOOCs is learners get together and discuss the topic in a forum. They help each other which form a harmonious learning environment. MOOCs have positive effects on person, education, and society.

Conclusion

The convenience and value of MOOCs attract people to use this open education. Large-scale, openness and interaction forum are the characteristics of MOOCs. Then, there are some positive effects on a person, education, and society. Actually, people borrow books from the library and listen to the radio also free and open education. However, this kind of free and open education is informal. They just can be continued to study. Thus, MOOCs also is a continuing study which strengthens and supplement our knowledge. MOOCs will keep developing in the future. Even though it might not mature enough for some of us, this is a good way for us to get an education. It not only benefits our education but also benefits our society. MOOCs offers us a good educational environment to get knowledge. We should continue to get knowledge in order to develop and improve ourselves. In the future, more and more revolution in education will happen. We will see how the mode of education change.

References:

Alraimi, K. M., Zo, H., & Ciganek, A. P. (2015). Understanding the MOOCs continuance: The role of openness and reputation. Computers & Education, 80, 28-29. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2014.08.006

Jemni, M., Koutheair, M., & Khribi, K. (2017). Open education: From OERs to MOOCs. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-52925-6

Tang, H & Carr-Chellman, A. (2016). Massive open online courses and educational equality in China: A qualitative inquiry, Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE), 9(1), 49-50.

Youngman, O. (2013). To measure a MOOC’s value, just ask students. (massive open online courses). The Chronicle of Higher Education, 60(15)

Final paper feedback

According to my peer review，I get someuseful feedback from my peers. For my first draft，it is too simple. And my conclusion does not complete. I do have a paper frame which contains a little bit introduction，body paragraph，and conclusion. Also，my gramma is not good enough. And also the transition between sentence is weak.

State of MOOCs

Should education have limitation? Education plays an important role in our all lives. Knowledge can change the way we think, and the way we act. Sometimes, it might change one’s life. I think education should not have limitation. No matter who you are or where you are, we should have chances of education. MOOCs as a way to offer many chances for everyone who want to learn. MOOCs means Massive Open Online Course. It is a course for people to attend without limitation by online learning. In this paper, the sate of MOOCs will be introduced. The reason why people choose MOOCs to learn and how it works will be also presented.

MOOCs is convenient and professional online learning way. MOOCs is popular because it contributes for everyone. It offers a platform that people can learn without limitation. Convenient is one of the reasons that attract people to learn by MOOCs. People can learn by MOOCs without area limitation. People who have the Internet can attend the course. No matter you are in Canada, Australia or China, you can take the course and learn something from it. Also, people can learn from MOOCs without career limitation. Education is no more just for students. People who play different roles in society can also enjoy education, such as housewife, banker or waiter.

The way that MOOCs works is also the reason why people learn by it. Expert for traditional course material, reading, video and problem set also assist to learn a course in MOOCs. At the very beginning, the form of e-learning is through TV and radio. There are very few students can finish the course. However, with the development of technology, there is a big revolution of distant education. It changes the way of e-learning a lot. Nowadays, there are many different ways to assist people to learn online course. In addition, even though MOOCs is a distant education, it can also have a good interaction between learners and teachers. MOOCs provides interactive course for teachers, learners, and assistance. Thus, people can have a good discussion on their course in this platform. In traditional education, the teachers are the center of the course rather than students. It means what instructors teach is what students learn. However, in MOOCs, the learns are the center of the course rather than instructors. It means learners can discuss and solve problems with other learners. It is kind of an experience of social interaction.

MOOCs will keep developing in the future. More and more revolution on education will happen. In the future, we will see how the types of education change.

How Digital Web Tools Support Different Modalities of Online Learning

Nowadays, online learning provides education chances for people who are of different age, nationality, and occupation. For example, it opens to everyone without age and area limitations. And then, online learning opens not only for on-campus students but also for any people who are working in different careers. There are two kinds of different modalities of online learning, which are close and open enrollment course. Those enrollment courses can help the student learn an online course effectively. And also, there are various digital web tools for online instructors and students to assist these two modalities. In this paper, I am going to focus more on open education. I will introduce some differences between close and public courses. Also, I will explain some benefits of online education.

The Moodle system is one of the digital web tools that suit to close the course. Students need to pay tuition for learning and getting school credit. In this system, course information is just provided for people who are enrolled in this course. Also, the instructor uses IM (instant message) to communicate with students. It just likes the office hours at school. Compared to the on-campus course, students can also interact with each other and learn some knowledge the same as the on-campus course does. EDCI 339 is the first online course that I take. In this course, we use WordPress to post our assignment. Even though we pay for tuition, this close online course uses the digital web tool of an open session. I think it is the right way for us to obtain more comments and communicate with others who are not just from our classmates. What’s more, it helps us learn and get more comprehensive information.

Blogger and WordPress are suited to open enrollment course. People can manage their site as they like because those are open-source. Not only student can see the course material and post the site, but also those who are enrolled in this course can do it as well. They offer public platforms for people to make comments and get feedback. It is beneficial for people to learn more from others who are from a different aspect. The open course also provides more opportunities for those who are not full-time students to learn. The more comment and feedback we get, the more knowledge and ideas we obtain.

The digital web tool is social media. As we all know, learning is not just limited to school. We can also learn lots of knowledge outside of school. Open education is good for us to gain knowledge outside of the book. It provides us a platform to share resources, ideas, and comments. In Open education, people can communicate with those who are unknown but have an interest in the same topic and want to have interaction. It also connects unfamiliar people. I think learning should not be limited by age, area, and economic condition. Open education is a platform that overcomes these kinds of problems. For example, it does not limit people’s age. It is for everyone willing to learn. Also, it does not limit people’s area. For example, if I am in China, I can still learn by sharing a resource or connected community. Besides, open education is free. This is good for people who want to learn and hard to afford tuition. For example, as an international student, we pay the expensive tuition on the on-campus course. However, we can also learn something outside of school from open education. I think EDCI 339 is a half-open and closed course. It needs a student to pay tuition, but the instructor uses open education ways to teach this course.

Online courses are mature nowadays. Online learning is not only convenient but also costs less than traditional education. People can adjust their schedules when they are learning online. They do not have to set up a fixed time to attend class. It means people who are not full-time students can also learn what they want. It is more flexible. I think students could learn well by online courses the same as on-campus does. Sometimes, I can learn something and get some ideas from the online course which cannot get from the on-campus course. Thus, the online course is a good experience in study life. Open education promotes the development of education. As we can see, past education has lots of restrictions. However, it encourages many people who can enjoy educating. It means more new modalities of education will keep being created in the future. It is a kind of revolution of education.

Open Education

Using social media to connect with a community of learners Previous education is in a frame that has many restrictions on learning academic knowledge. In the past, men can go to school while women cannot in some countries. Also, the upper class can go to school while the lower class cannot. However, nowadays education becomes more popular than before. Most people have the right to learn. Compared to traditional education, open education is flexible. For example, it open to everyone. Also, the resource open to everyone as well. I think online learning is suited to on-campus learning for open education. It is because online learning is more flexible than on-campus learning. I think learning should not be limited by age, area, and economic condition. Open education is a platform that satisfies these kinds of conditions. For example, it does not limit people’s age. It is for everyone willing to learn. Also, it does not limit people’s area. For example, if I am in China, I can still learn by sharing a resource or connected community. Besides, open education is free. This is good for people who want to learn and hard to afford tuition. For example, as an international student, we pay the expensive tuition on the on-campus course. However, we can also learn something outside of school from open education. Open education promotes the development of education. As we can see, in the past education has lots of restrictions. However, it promotes too many people who can enjoy educating. And then, there is an online learning course. Besides, open education appears which is more flexible. Thus, the types of education are appearing. It means more new modalities of education will keep being created in the future. It is a kind of revolution of education.

Using social media to connect with a community of learners

Social media plays an important role in our daily lives nowadays. Not only social media can entertain us, but also can connect with others. As we all know, learning is not just limited to school. We can also learn lots of knowledge outside of school. Social media is a good way for us to learn knowledge outside of the book. People have freedom of speech on social media. Thus, there are a large number of ideas are posted online. Through reading the news or articles, we can share our ideas by leaving a comment. Expect for leaving comments to communicate with the learner. Besides, there are many kinds of social network which provides a platform for people to discuss, such as YouTube and Facebook. In the article “Social Media and Education: Using Social Media For Better Academic Results”, Fox said that social media has advantages on academic learning. Firstly, communication is one of the advantages of learning. Social media provide a platform that people can create their learning community. For example, Google Doc is a social media that connect with classmates outside of class. When we prepare for a group project, we can start it on Google Doc and people keep adding ideas, so people who are in the same group can see all the updated ideas. Besides, Social media contains all kinds of information. We can find our answer from it. For example, sometimes I do not understand what the teacher explains the course content in class. Thus, I search for the related content on YouTube. From YouTube, there is a much clear and brief explanation. Sometimes, I will leave a comment to YouTubers. And they will reply, so I get to have a kind of conversation with them.

Some people might think education should be processing by traditional formats, such as on-campus study. However, social media as a new format for scholars to study. It encourages them to learn.

Data and Privacy in Technology

With the technology developed, it provides a lot of convenience to people. However, there are some disadvantages. For example, I am going to present one of them which is about privacy in technology. Many free websites are not free. It collects people’s information to run on the website. I think personal information does not be protected well enough in technology.

As technology develops fast these days, personal information is stolen and spread easily. There is commercial value on personal information. Thus, some unethical people steal and sell to others because they can get more benefits from this personal information. For example, sometimes I often receive some phone calls which are phone scams. The reason why this phone scam gets my phone number is that someone gets my number and sell to others without permission. Besides, when people download some apps which sometimes connect with another slush that is unsafe, their information might be stolen. This phenomenon negatively impacts on the internet environment. Besides, sometimes it seems my action is detected. When I search for something frequently, it will show it again even though I do not search it. It just like an advertisement which shows on the side. For example, I want to buy a shoe and go to the Nike website for several times. When I search for another website, it appears some Nike shoes that I searched before. This advertises to me to click on it, so it can attract me to buy it. It is a way to get people’s information and provide the product to them. WordPress is a modality that our course EDCI 339 is using. It is an open course, so all people can read our article. Thus, sometimes people might come and copy some good content. Copyright protects the writers’ rights. For example, we need to pay for Spotify if we want to download the music. Copyright encourages people to create things, such as music, movie or technology. Without copyright, fewer people are willing to put their effort into creating things. What’s more, people should know how to protect their information. Firstly, the password that you create should not be too easy. And then, people should use public WIFI carefully. Sometimes, people should avoid connecting that WIFI which needs your phone number and email address to login in. Also, people should download official software which is safer.

How Digital Web Tools Support Different Modalities of Online Learning

Nowadays, online learning provides chances for people who want to learn, such as different age, nationality, and occupation. There are all kinds of different modalities of online learning, which are closed and opened enrollment course. There are various digital web tools for online instructors and students to assist these two modalities.

Moodle system is one of the digital web tools that suits to the closed course. Students need to pay tuition for learning and getting school credit. In this system, course information provides for people who enrolled in this course. Also, the instructor uses IM (instant message) to communicate with students. It just likes the office hours at school. Compared to the on-campus course, students can also interact with each other and learn some knowledge the same as the on-campus course does. EDCI 339 is my first online course that I take. In this course, we use the WordPress to post our assignment. Even though we pay for tuition, this closed online course uses the digital web tool of opened course. I think it is a good way for us to obtain more comments and communicate with others who are not just from our classmates.

Blogger and WordPress suit to opened enrollment course. People can manage personal sites. They are open-source. Not only student can see the course material and post the site, but also those who do not enroll in this course can do it as well. They offer public platforms for people to make comments and get feedback. It is beneficial for people to learn more from others who are from different aspects. The opened course also provides more opportunities for those who are not full-time student to learn. The more comment and feedback we get, the more knowledge and idea we obtain.

Online courses are mature nowadays. I think students could learn well by online course the same as on-campus does. Sometimes, I can learn something and get some ideas from the online course which cannot get from the on-campus course. Thus, the online course is a good experience in study life.

Welcome and Introduction

Before you get started, please send your instructor an email with the URL to your site, which will be [yoururl].opened.ca. This step is critical as your work will be completed on your blog and I need to know where to find you.

First tasks you should explore with your new blog:

Go into its admin panel by adding /wp-admin at the end of your blog’s URL.
Tap “Settings” and change the email address to your email address, then make sure you check your email and confirm the change.

Add new categories or tags to organize your blog posts – found under “Posts” (but do not remove the pre-existing “edtechuvic” or “Distributed & Open” categories)
See if your blog posts are appearing on the course website (you must have the course categories assigned to a post first and have provided your instructor with your blog URL)
- It can take an hour or so for your posts to appear on the course site.
Add an “About Me” or a page welcoming visitors to your site.
Embed images or set featured images and embed video in blog posts and pages (can be your own media or that found on the internet, but consider free or creative commons licensed works, like found at unsplash.com or pexels.com)
Under Appearance:
- Select your preferred website theme and customize to your preferences (New title, etc.)
- Customize menus & navigation
- Use widgets to customize blog content and features
Delete this starter post and the test posts.

Test Post

This is a test post that was created in the template you copied. Please delete it once you have confirmed that your posts are being aggregated on the course site.