MOOC: Is it the future of education?

What is the future of education in US? If you think for a while, you might come to conclusion that it is online learning. How? Via technologies. With increasing MOOC (Massively Open Online Courses), that seems to be the case. The rate at which MOOC is evolving and expending seems to prove my point. MOOC is widely spread throughout the globe via initiatives like Coursera, edX, and Udacity. These sites offer free secondary (college-level) learning to mass audience from reputable institutions around the world. The main impetus of these sites is to reach places where education is not provided. You might say that it is counter-intuitive, but that seems to be the case. There are many parts of the world where kids don’t get education due to many reasons such as affordability. This is the main driving force of this initiative to provide free college-level education to each and everyone around the world. The only requirement is they have Internet. Isn’t that wonderful?

I am a firm believer of learning and spreading knowledge. I am all in for this initiative. In fact, after going through many courses on all of the above three sites, I can safely say that they are providing a great learning experience. Why would one not take advantage of such amazing, easily accessible, freely available, tons in content and quality of subjects? I do not see any reasons for not utilizing this incredible medium, do you? I am an undergraduate myself and I attend university courses, but I sometimes wonder why do I have to pay so much for my education? Why can’t I simply learn from all of the above classes and utilize the knowledge acquired? The content offered on these sites is provided through collective efforts of many prestigious universities around the world. I can learn anything that interests me at my pace and truly learn to understand and be able to apply the knowledge.

These courses provide the same content learned at universities for free. If someone, though is very much interested in earning a college credit for the courses they are taking then they need to pay, but if you are simply interested in learning, you basically sign up with a username and password and bam!, you are in the world of learning. One can actually take all the courses they need to receive an undergraduate degree in many disciplines for example Computer Science. One can take these courses at their leisure without restriction on time and place. One can watch these short videos on their phones, tablets, and computers at any time one feels. Why then do I still need to attend classes in lecture halls? Why then do I need to pay so much money for education? I believe this initiative will likely bring reforms in the education systems around the world from all aspects of learning and education. Let’s see where it takes us?