Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) and badges provide organizations and professionals an alternative solution to the high costs of workforce training and continuing education. They play a crucial role in the innovation portion of the President’s Plan to Make College More Affordable and are being utilized by top universities and organizations such as the Veteran’s Affairs supported program: Badges for Vets.
Massive Open Online Courses are free online classes
available for anyone to enroll. There are three main platforms for MOOCs:
Coursera, Edx and Udacity. Each website
lists hundreds of courses from expert practitioners and universities, including
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke, and MIT. A
typical class requires students to follow a timed curriculum including reading
assignments, video lectures, quizzes and a final exam. Those interested in
earning a certification must pass the quizzes and exam before earning a
certification.
The initial goal of MOOCs was simply to bring down education barriers and provide anyone with an Internet connection the opportunity to learn. As MOOCs have evolved the process of certification has come to forefront. MOOCs require time and effort to complete and those who do complete them need tangible ways to apply them to their professional careers.
Udacity, Coursera, and Edx have all been working to
authenticate their certification processes. Most courses available through the
platform will allow the student to receive a certificate upon completion of the
course. As a way to further authenticate this process more courses are offering
the option of paying a small fee to have the certification verified or even
apply the coursework to college credit.
Mozilla, in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, has taken
the certification process one step further with the creation of virtual badges.
The purpose of the badges is to provide a holistic view of the professional by
looking at an individual’s entire learning ecosystem. Mozilla’s Open Badges website provides a platform for
earning, issuing and displaying badges. The credibility of the badges is
verified through a digital hyperlink showing the issuing organization and all
criteria met to earn certification. Badges
allow professionals to show exactly how proficient they are in both specific
skills such as HTML or foreign language as well as more difficult to define
skills such as those learned through volunteering or military service. Bob Wise
of the Alliance for Excellent Education states “Badges bridge the divide between formal and informal
education, and they have the power to transform competency-based learning and
hiring practices.”
MOOCs
and badges create a mutual beneficial relationship between organizations and
professionals. Money is saved on workforce training and higher-level employees
do not have to spend as much time leading in-person trainings, and recruiters
are able to choose candidate with the specific abilities they desire. In turn,
professionals are able to more articulately present a holistic view of their
skill set and showcase their intellectual curiosity and desire for life-long
learning.
References:
- -http://openbadges.org/
- -http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/08/22/fact-sheet-president-s-plan-make-college-more-affordable-better-bargain-
- -http://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DigitalBadges.pdf
- -https://badgesforvets.org/
- -http://all4ed.org/press/digital-badges-convey-competencies-allow-learners-to-pave-pathways-new-alliance-report-finds/
About the Author: Kathryn Bly is a Lint Center volunteer - See more at: http://lintcenter.info/blog/entry/3705812/usa-cyber-warrior-scholarship-for-it-security#sthash.Oanihfuv.dpuf
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