IT Write Up: Education in Digital Age - MOOC Technologies

This report examines the use of new technologies in education and training within the digital age, with a specific focus on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and mobile phone integration in secondary education. The report provides an overview of MOOCs, highlighting their structure, cost-effectiveness, and unique features compared to other distance learning options. It explores the benefits of internet-based MOOCs, such as accessibility and flexibility. Furthermore, the report identifies and analyzes three key issues related to technology in education: learners' willingness to pay a small fee for certifications, the inability of MOOCs to consistently provide high-level academic learning, and the expensive development costs for educational institutions. The discussion incorporates reflective practice, drawing on personal experiences in online learning. The report concludes with recommendations to mitigate the identified challenges and maximize the effective use of modern technologies in education and training.

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Education in Digital Age
New technologies in education and training
(Student details :)
5/21/2019

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Contents
New Technologies in Education and Training...........................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Mobile phone uses in secondary education................................................................................3
Benefits of using internet based MOOCs technologies for education.......................................4
Three issues related to new technology in education.................................................................4
Learners’ willingness to pay a small fee................................................................................5
Inability to provide high level academic learning..................................................................5
Expensive development for educational institutions..............................................................6
Discussion of complexity of three issues...................................................................................7
Reflection on own experience....................................................................................................8
Conclusion and recommendations...........................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

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New Technologies in Education and Training
Introduction
This discussion is based on new technologies in education in training in this digital age. To
discuss technology based education and training process in secondary education certifications
this paper is going to utilise internet and online MOOC (referred as Massive Open Online
Course) certification technology. In other words, MOOCs are the creative ways of providing
free quality education for massive number of people with the help of internet technologies.
MOOCs offer interactive courses with the help of user forums for supporting community
interactions amid professors, students as well as teaching assistants. In general, MOOCs are
the modern as well as broadly researched invention within distance education and introduced
in the year 2006 (Fieland, 2019). Later then, in the year 2012 MOOCs have been emerged
being a popular mode of learning and education. Moreover, MOOCs are getting popular in
the field of secondary as well as higher education as it is useful technique of teaching and
learning for those who cannot afford a formal education due to their personal reasons
(Beetham & Sharpe, 2013).
In this context, this discussion will cover several aspects of digital age education in the
context of MOOC online certifications and internet teaching as well as learning. In this way,
the paper will first explain the concept of mobile phone uses within secondary education from
the perspective of internet and online MOOC certifications. Furthermore, a discussion about
the complexities involved in three identified issues in the context of implementing the
MOOC technologies for the learning in secondary education will take place (Breslow et al.,
2013). In addition, a reflective practice will be demonstrated while accessing my own
experiences in the context of online learning and teaching in secondary education level. In
this way, a systematic procedure will be being utilised to narrate the importance of MOOC
and internet learning while highlighting the complex issues related to this teaching
technology for the readers of this paper (Farhadi et al., 2012). Finally, after analysis,
evaluation and detailed research this discussion will summarize the main findings while also
providing the future recommendations in order to minimize the complexities attached to the
application of chosen modern technologies in education and training.

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Mobile phone uses in secondary education
This paragraph is going to cover why the chosen topic is important in this modern era. This
portion of the discussion will contain academic literature about needs as well as contexts of
contemporary learners (Forschungs-Gemeinschaft, 2011). In this way, for understanding the
MOOC concept better the meaning behind its acronym should be revealed as:
 Massive: the massive word in its name suggests that thousands of the learners can
attend the same course simultaneously. For an instance, more than 150,000 learners
have signed up for the course ‘Introduction to Artificial Intelligence’ by Dr Sebastian
Thrun in 2012 (Pappano, 2012).
 Open: these MOOCs are open for every learner regardless of any academic
achievement and hence each and every learner from the whole world can join these
online certification courses. In addition, these courses are free or we can say
extremely low-budget that makes them beneficial for all.
 Online: here, online stands for the reason that while using MOOCs for learning
learners can interact as well as collaborate with other learners from the whole world
only with the help of a strong internet connection.
 Courses: these are not only videos or recordings but MOOCs are especially designed
to be effective for online learning. Besides, the new technology that is being used is
continuously evolving as well as improving the teaching methods for improvement in
education and training outcomes (Udell et al., 2015).
In this contemporary era, MOOCs are important being an attractive technology in the times
of distance learning. However, some important features of MOOCs set them apart from all of
the other distance learning alternatives (Donche, 2013). In this way, academic literature on
new technologies for education and training suggests that MOOCs are the best way to
effectively teach with internet for secondary education over those of other distance learning
options (OpenCourseWare OCW). The reasons why this technological concept of teaching is
very much important for contemporary times are as follows:
 Structure: OCWs are having proper structures due to strict deadlines and homework
assignments, whereas MOOCs have very few needs and small structure. On the other
hand, MOOCs allow the learners to learn as per their own schedule (Broadbent &
Poon, 2015).

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 Cost: there are three segments online college classes, OCW and MOOCs. Out of the
entire above, MOOCs take a small fee only if the learner wants a verified certificate
of completion (Broadbent & Poon, 2015).
 Unique Features: quality MOOCs offer common learning components like reading
material, videos, integrated activities, course-specific forums, and final project or
examination (Kellogg, 2013).
Benefits of using internet based MOOCs technologies for education
There are number of benefits of MOOCs, which make high-quality educational contents
available to the mass population through videos, quizzes, as well as discussion forums within
a 4 to 6 week course sessions (Schultz, 2009). In this way, some major benefits of using
internet based learning and teaching technologies like MOOC for secondary education are as
follows:
 MOOC teaches and make thousands of students learn while location does not matter,
as long as a solid Internet connection is available.
 When we use MOOC, financial status of the learners does not matter, as MOOCs are
freely available.
 In addition, MOOCs classes are self-directed, thus MOOCs can fit into any learner’s
schedule.
 MOOCs content and material can be streamed, thus one can assess the desired
academic material at their desk or on the way with their mobile phones.
 One other benefit of MOOC is that if an individual want to watch or listen to any
MOOC for growing their business, then they can do it from their desk, while
travelling by the train to the organization (Reviews, 2018).
Three issues related to new technology in education
Although this technology is useful, consistent and credible source of learning as well as
teaching in secondary education yet there are some issues related to this new technology
within education (Reviews, 2018). Out of these, three major issues related to MOOC
certification and mobile phone uses are as follows:

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Learners’ willingness to pay a small fee
As we know that learners of this contemporary education world want certification for each
and everything, they do for their academic development. Hence, in order to provide better
quality MOOCs providers charge a small fee to all of those learners who want certifications
in secondary education training courses (Anon, 2015). This fee is collected from the users to
fund the operations of the MOOC’s providers so that they are able to continue offering their
services at affordable prices to users around the globe. However, this fee is also expensive,
especially for users who are living in developing countries and wanted to access these
services online. It also limits the number of students who are able to access the MOOC
services since they know that they will not be able to afford these charges (Gila & Barry,
2010). Many MOOC providers did not provide a ‘demo facility’ to its users to allow them to
check the information and materials of the course before they enrolled for the same. It creates
ambiguity, and the users find it difficult to select between which is the best suitable course
for them to invest their hard-earned money. Since most of the learners are not willing to pay
the fees for receiving a certificate of these courses, it limits the number of people that uses
these services (Hajkowicz et al., 2016).
In this way, economic diversity of the places affects willingness of the learners in for paying
fee amount while studying with the help of mobile phones and internet. Thus, it has become
an issue for the successful usage of this new technology in education (McLawhon & Cutright,
2012).
Inability to provide high level academic learning
As per the results and data found from previous literature findings, MOOCs have been
inadequate in the capability for developing high level academic learning. In other words, it
can be said that the high-level intellectual skills are the most important need of this
knowledge-based society and MOOCs have been many times failed to provide high-level
quality academic learning to its learners (Higgins et al., 2012). The main reason for this issue
is that most of the MOOC providers are non-profit organisations that are funded through
charities, donations and other sources. It limits their resources, and it makes it difficult for
them to make sure they have access to high quality resources that allow them to deliver
effective educational facilities to their users (Hodson, 2009). These providers find it difficult
to provide educational materials to their users since they are expensive, and they have limited
resources. All these factors contribute to reducing the ability of MOOC providers to make

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sure that they deliver high quality academic learning facilities to their users on a global stage.
Apart from this, the writer of this paper observed that MOOCs always tend to appeal the
people who are already at a high level of education, rather than broaden access of internet
(India Today, 2017).
It limits the user base of these providers that also reduces the number of sources of funding
for these organisations. Due to lack of high quality educational facilities, MOOC providers
find it difficult to attract users who are looking to get higher education since they are not able
to offer them facilities as compared with other educational sources (Lynch, 2017). The
process of hiring and retaining qualified and experienced teachers is considerably high, which
increase the operating costs of MOOC providers and makes it difficult them to ensure that
they retain them for a long period. Due to the lack of a skilled and qualified team of teachers
and high quality materials, users prefer to choose alternative options than compared to
MOOC. Thus, inability of offering quality academic learning to the contemporary students is
the second biggest challenge of MOOC technology use for secondary education learning
(Saljo, 2010).
Expensive development for educational institutions
In this context, it has been observed that MOOCs are very much costly while developed by
educational institutions. Besides, the third issue related to chosen technology implementation
suggests that MOOCs are so expensive to develop, however many commercial organisations
are offering MOOC platforms which have opportunities for sustainable business models
(Underwood, 2009).
Along with hiring a number of qualified and experienced teachers, MOOC providers also
have to invest in the development and improvement of technologies to make sure that their
users are able to receive effective educational services from them. However, as discussed
earlier, they have access to limited sources of funding, which means that they cannot spend
blinding on improving their facilities. The investment made by these providers on the
development of their platform also limits their ability to keep experienced teachers on their
platform in order to offer live sessions to their users (Pritchard, 2013). They have to
compromise and provide flexible timing to their teachers, which make it difficult for users
living in different time zones to attend the live lectures. They also find it difficult to resolve
their queries during the live lectures, which make it difficult for them to resolve their queries
on a timely basis. These factors affect the decisions of users in an adverse manner when they

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decide to pursue high education through MOOC and it discourages them from using these
services. Therefore, for all publicly funded higher education institutions it is a challenge to
develop sustainable business models for MOOC technologies of education and training
(Breslow et al., 2013).
Discussion of complexity of three issues
This part of the discussion is going to explain the complexities of the above-mentioned three
issues related to new technologies usage in education and training certifications (Fieland,
2019). In this way, the complexities attached to all of the three issues, which have been
identified within this paper, are as follows:
 One of the main reasons why MOOCs are unable to provide high-level academic
learning is that as per recent estimates more than 75 per cent of MOOCs are available
in the English language. Here, the issue is that native English speakers are in minority
among the globe’s whole population. Although many MOOC providers have taken
initiatives to offer their services in other languages as well such as Spanish; however,
the choices of language is limited when compared with the diversity of the users that
rely on the services of MOOC. It issue also limits many users from accessing the
services of MOOC since they are not able to understand the materials and live lectures
which are given by mostly English speaking teachers (Udell et al., 2015).
Therefore, this complexity of the barriers of the MOOCs is encouraging content
developers as well as rest MOOC stakeholders for developing academic content in
many other popular languages in order to widen MOOCs access from all over the
world.
 In addition, complexities of using MOOCs technology while using mobile phone and
internet can be MOOC accreditation, assessing the conditions within which MOOC
participation can expand, understanding the breadth versus depth in MOOC
participations. Users who did not have access to a high-speed internet connection also
find it difficult to stream live lectures, which make it difficult for them to resolve their
queries on time (Udell et al., 2015).
 A proper availability of broadband access as well as social networking skills is again a
complexity of this learning technology. Many users are intimidated and afraid to ask
their queries during the live lecture since they find it easier to ask questions from their

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teachers after they complete their lecture, which is not the case with MOOC services
(Reviews, 2018).
 Furthermore, the viability of MOOCs technologies from an economic perspective is
the complexity attached to an expensive development issue as discussed above parts.
 Moreover, high registration numbers for MOOCs are also misleading which creates a
complexity again. It means that less than half of the registrants actively participate in
the online education courses, and of these, tiny proportions positively complete the
MOOC.
 In the context of using mobile phones for education and training, assessment of the
greater levels of learning is a challenge for MOOCs.
 In addition to that, MOOCs material might be restricted by copyright and time
restrictions for re-use being open educational resource.
 There is no trial videos and sessions available
 Most MOOC providers did not offer a facility of trial for their users, which allow
them to check out their facilities before investing in these services. It makes users
sceptical about these services, and they are more likely to avoid them and choose
traditional methods of high educations.
 Since the majority of users that rely on these services are looking for higher education
facilities, it becomes difficult for them to use the certificates of these courses when
they change their jobs or location of their jobs. Many of the certificates issued by
MOOC providers are not considered as valid in some countries and many job
providers did not give them equal weightage then compared to other, traditional
methods of higher educations. It also discourages users from relying on these services
for their higher studies (Breslow et al., 2013).
Reflection on own experience
In this paragraph, reflection on my own experiences and settings will be covered in the
context of MOOC technology for education and learning while I was completing my
secondary education. My own experiences about digital age education suggest that millennial
learners always prefer online learning through internet and MOOCs courses for the sake of
ease, flexibility, affordability, as well as feasibility (Hickson, 2011).

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In this context, I would like to narrate one of my experiences related to teaching and learning
through this new technology MOOC while comparing it with other OCW and offline courses.
I learnt a lot from these MOOCs during my secondary education studies. I also compared
MOOC, OCW, and offline studies at universities in the context of new technological learning
in this era. In this way, my experiences of learning online from my mobile phone are
suggesting that one can execute mobile learning through using their phones with strong
internet connection from anywhere in the world. I found the attribute of flexibility as the
major benefit of this learning and teaching technology as well as it is almost free as
comparative to offline campus education. However, I also faced some challenges while
accessing internet based MOOC technologies for studying my secondary education subjects
and acquiring certification for some training courses. According to me, MOOCs are the best
way of interactive learning at an international level. When I used MOOC technology to learn
and be trained in some particular subjects then I observed that P2PU was the best MOOC
provider, which provided a peer-to-peer learning resourced by P2PU University (Fieland,
2019).
My evolved views over the topic of new technologies in education and training field suggest
that MOOCs need to be more popular and useful for the millennial students so that people
from all across the world can acquire benefits of modern technologies to be literate and
qualified. In addition to that, my personal experience made me feel proud to be a technology
literate person as all we need to know is how to handle these technologies for learning and
teaching. I learnt that efficient teachers and learners are those who can do adaptive learning in
any scenario with the minimal required resources. When I attended MOOCs with my mobile
phone then I felt that there could be no better use of modern technologies than in education
and training (Breslow et al., 2013).
Apart from this, learning experiences of online through MOOCs also taught me team learning
during my training through this new technology (Rita et al., 2016). I also felt some key
complexities of this innovative learning technology such as fee constraints for certification
courses, limited academic materials and topics, limited learning resources, and many more.
On the other hand, based on (Fieland, 2019) I have understood the three major characteristics
of MOOCs include free, open to everyone, as well as flexible courses structure. In this
context, I would like to narrate my personal reasons why I explored MOOCs for learning as
follows:

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 MOOCs provided supplements to the other learning methodologies
 I came to know that MOOCs provides a vast majority which are free
 To me, MOOCs provides life-long learning opportunities for career growth
 MOOCs provided recognized certifications to me
 In addition to that, MOOCs offered a wide range of subjects in my selected domain
(Saljo, 2010).
Furthermore, after taking MOOCs for studies and certification courses I am able to reflect
upon the major steps to taking a MOOC. In this way, here these are the steps which I have
utilised when took MOOC for my knowledge enhancement and online certifications:
 Firstly, I figured out my own reason for taking MOOC
 Then I determined whether a prerequisite is needed or not
 I confirmed technical requirements before registering for the course
 Later then, I registered with the chosen MOOC provider
 Afterwards, I paid the fee
 As I learnt that when a MOOC offering results in an academic degree then a formal
application form must be filled to the degree-granting institute, hence I applied to the
relevant academic institute of my chosen MOOC.
In this way, I learnt that teaching and learning practices do not differ with the means of
teaching and learning provided the material be resourced from a reliable and credible source.
I also learnt that teachers could easily find great opportunities on MOOC platforms by
dealing with the great MOOC providers like edX, P2PU, Coursera, Udemy and Udacity
(Reviews, 2018). Therefore, based on my experiences related to teaching and learning
through MOOC technologies I have evolved my future action plan from the perspective of
value adding my skills for the betterment of my career and professional growth (Pappano,
2012).
Conclusion and recommendations
In whole, this discussion has covered many aspects of new technologies within the field of
training and education by using mobile learning via internet such as MOOC. This study has
concluded that a revolution is coming in the field of education and training gradually which
needs an adaptively implementation. Post analysing different MOOC providers and their
issues along with the complexities attached to them, this paper has revealed that

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contemporary MOOC providers need to evolve their MOOC models for revenue generation
in order to ensure the sustainable future for their business. In this way, the key learning from
this discussion is that keeping up with the pace of change within contemporary business is
always significant.
Therefore, some useful future recommendations for the teachers, students, learners, and
MOOC providers are as follows:
 MOOC providers should incur free trials of the course classes independent of the
advanced payment and fee submission.
 MOOC providers should evolve and strategize their business models from the
perspective of sustainability in business.
 Teachers should explore more aspects of academic subjects so that learners get
attracted towards these MOOCs over OCWs and offline study programs.
 Furthermore, learners should use all six steps of taking a MOOC, which I have
explained in the earlier sections of this discussion.
References
Anon, 2015. Investing in E-learning: Rodale launches online education platform. Folio: The
Magazine for Magazine Management, 44(2), p.46.
Beetham, H. & Sharpe, R., 2013. Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing for 21st
century learning. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
Breslow, L., Pritchard, D. & DeBoer, J., 2013. Studying learning in the worldwide classroom
research into edX's first MOOC. Research and Practice in Assessement , 8, pp.13-25.
Broadbent, J. & Poon, W.L., 2015. Self-regulated learning strategies & academic
achievement in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review. The
internet and Higher Education, 27, p.1.
Donche, V., 2013. Differential Use of Learning Strategies in First-Year Higher Education:
The Impact of Personality, Academic Motivation, and Teaching Strategies. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, 83(2), pp.238-51.
Farhadi, M., Ismail, R. & Fooladi, M., 2012. Information and communication technology use
and economic growth. PLoS one, 7(11), p.e48903.