An insightful observation from elearnspace.com by George Siemens (March 10. 2013):
The “new pedagogical models” (A Silicon Valley term meaning: we didn’t read the literature and still don’t realize that these findings are two, three, or more decades old) being discovered by MOOC providers supports what most academics and experienced teachers know about learning: it’s a social, active, and participatory process.
The current MOOC providers have adopted a regressive pedagogy: small scale learning chunks reminiscent of the the heady days of cognitivism and military training. Ah, the 1960′s. What a great time to be a learner.
Dr. Siemens' comments confirmed my observation that I thought I was wrong about MOOCs. I have been involving in the creation, design, and development of computer-assisted learning. Lots of our efforts were invested in creating "small scale learning chunks" from the approach of cognitivism. The pedagogical models taken by xMOOC look so familiar to me. Yes, xMOOCs are presented in more optimal and fashioned ways with the engagement of many world leading instructors/institutions and the support of emerging technology. However, the basic model is similar to the one adopted in the old age.
A very important reason that promoted the spread of computer-assisted instruction model between 1960 and mid 90' was that it was an easy-to-scale-up model. The model has proved to be unsatisfactory in terms of personalization - there is no one-size-fit-all education. They are good as complementary learning components but are not appropriate to be considered as full functional courses. Without further improvement, I agree with Dr. Siemens' comment that xMOOCs are adopting a regressive pedagogy.
Some instructors of the courses delivered in Coursera, e.g, Eric Rabkin from U of Michigan in his Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World, provided additional video lectures discussing the assignment which had already been marked and returned. Other instructors, e.g., Lada Adamic from U of Michigan in her Social Network Analysis, had provided Google Hand-out discussions which allowed students to raise questions and share experiences.
Without serious reflection on the failure of old games, it would be a waste of education resources which are getting insufficient.
