Massive Online Open Courses In Nursing Education
Online Learning and MOOC
An MOOC is a massive open online course available on the Internet for free with unlimited open enrollment to participants globally. Cormier (2008) was the first to use the word MOOC when planning a course offered in Canada.
Affordable MOOCs In Nursing Education
What courses for nursing can be offered as MOOCs? In 2012, a health policy course with a focus on the new Affordable Care Act was offered (Kirschner, 2012). This MOOC topic is of interest to a wide audience. There is potential for MOOCs for some nursing courses, but careful selection and content must be considered. Perhaps, MOOCs in nursing could start with courses such as those in the basic sciences, microbiology, or infection control. Such courses could be developed so that the content is relevant to nursing programs globally.
Due to the increasing cost of education, it is becoming critical to look at innovative models for teaching and learning. Although the MOOC is not totally new, it is an opportunity for innovation through expansion of the online course format. MOOCs may be the way forward; however, technological support and professional development are critical if faculty members are to develop and deliver innovative and successful MOOCS Bellack (2013) questioned whether MOOCs posed a threat to faculty and the faculty role, or were a way to ease the faculty shortage.
Skiba (2013) stated that with the MOOC, the faculty role is changed from knowledge disseminator to mentor and guide. Faculty members will have to empower and coach students with this new paradigm as students will have to engage and be responsible for their work (Skiba, 2013). The introduction of MOOCs in the present format has implications for school of nursing budgets. MOOCs, although free, may incur expenses that cannot be reimbursed. Many universities are providing the courses without charge because there is good publicity value and perhaps increase enrollment in the regular programs.
Advance Learning and MOOCs
Advanced Learning Interactive Systems Online (ALISON), founded in 2007 in Ireland, developed the first MOOC (Bornstein, 2012). The majority of ALISON learners are in the developing world. ALISON is one of the largest MOOC providers outside the United States and had registered the three-millionth user at the beginning of 2014 (ALISON, 2014). In the United States, the big-name MOOC providers are Coursera, Udacity, and EdX. Coursera offers MOOCs and also partners with universities to make MOOCs available.
MOOC courses with Coursera are available on mobile devices such as the iPhone and android (Coursera, b, nd ). Coursera has at least 82 million users in 678 courses from 110 institutions (Anderson, 2014). Udacity, founded in 2012, has 1 to 6 million users and offers 36 courses (Udacity, nd). EdX, founded in 2012, as of June 23, 2014, had 36 partners. It offers approximately 200 courses to more than 2.5 million users (EdX, b. nd .).
MOOC courses are usually at the college or university level. Topics developed for MOOCs are wide ranging and are often broad so that they can attract a diverse audience. Popular topics include the sciences and math, along with popular topics with the public, such as emotional intelligence, social justice, and meditation. Due to the unlimited open enrollment, thousands of students are often enrolled in the same course.
Different models have evolved related to the access of course materials and resources Early MOOC courses provided open access to all resources and materials, while many newer courses provide open access to enrolled students only. MOOCs usually are held for 7 to 9 weeks, with a virtual lecture format and assignments including quizzes. Many have assignments graded by peers (Coursera, a, nd). Peer grading is used because it is impossible for faculty to grade thousands of assignments.
The completion rates for MOOCs can range from as low as 13% to as high as 40% or more (Jordan, nd). There is also evidence that while many register for a MOOC, many do not watch one course video ( Catropa . 2013). Some MOOCs offer completion certificates and a few will offer course credit ( Edx , and) Coursera reported that students who pay for the company's Signature Track identity verification program, which confirms that they took a course and passed, had some of the highest completion rates.
In addition, 70% of those who have signed up for the signature verification option completed the courses (Coursera blog, nd ). The American Council on Education recognized five MOOC courses for college credit ( Kolowich , 2013). All of these courses are run by Coursera and a verified certificate is provided at the end of the course. Perhaps, when MOOCs for undergraduate and graduate nursing students are available, they could be reviewed and approved for college credit by the accrediting bodies and boards of nursing for college credit.While the video lecture is the usual format for MOOCs, research studies have shown that the more the student is involved in the course, the higher the completion rate (Fowler, 2013).
Students involved in discussion board postings with class colleagues showed an increase in final grades (Fowler. 2013). Doing homework also increased the completion rate. Teaching a MOOC can be challenging as there is no student engagement during the class. Some faculty are trying to increase engagement by attaching audio messages to the graded assignments when they are returned (Fowler, 2013). Others are developing discussion board assignments. Some faculty strive to increase course inter action by assigning mentors to the students (Fowler, 2013).
Need of MOOCs In Nursing Education
Nursing faculty need to embrace the MOOC and develop course for nursing research related to motivation and engagement of students enrolled in the MOOC is needed. Comparison studies on student engagement and course outcomes are also needed. There is a need for the development for innovative assignments and tools to grade and evaluate the student's work securely and accurately when dealing with huge classes.
Desilets (2013) challenges nurses to consider the change in learning and teaching paradigm with the advent of MOOCs and how this will impact continuing professional education MOOCs are here to stay and they are changing the face of teaching and learning. Nurse educators need to take the lead to ensure MOOCs for nurses to meet the needs of the students and the changing nursing education environment.
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