MOOCs are strictly not meant to replace teachers with online courses, and their developers value the fact that the interaction among teachers and students is something which is impossible to replicate on MOOCs or any other online programs of the kind.
Now, rather being centric to the process of teaching, teachers can take the role of guides for overall betterment of education. MOOCs also facilitate the creation of Flipped Classrooms and highlight the significance of technology in education. They help better student learning and improve the efficiency of new teachers. With many teacher training courses also available on MOOCs, amateur teachers can become more adept with their profession. They build their foundation on the fact of how efficiently and cost-effectively MOOCs and other technology disseminate knowledge, in contrast to the manual methods for the purpose.
Here are a few of the many ways of how MOOCs benefit Teachers:
- Teachers and organizations are learners themselves, and there is heart-felt need for courses such as MOOCs to be available for their learning and reference. MOOCs are made to aid them throughout the process of teaching.
- MOOCs build the competency of teachers and support them virtually in their professional growth.
- They offer teachers high-quality strategies and tips to advance student learning, and also provide training courses for teachers.
- They help teachers observe how other teachers teach, to improve their teaching skills and expand their knowledge. Teachers also get to learn how to design courses on their own.
- Enable them to engage in group discussions and be a part of communities and forums, to interact with diverse groups of people and learn or share knowledge with them.
- Make them re-live the student experience to feel what it’s like to be on the receiving end of e-learning today, which makes them provide exactly what their students need and help better the understanding between them.
- Help them structure self-learning through assignments and quizzes to evaluate their own learning and thereby work to improve it.
- Allow access to refine and well- sorted resources, to cut down time and effort. Also, since resources are available for free, extra costs for hiring resources from elsewhere are also eliminated.
- MOOCs in themselves are a resource that teachers can use in the classroom. They are already organized resources and don’t require a teacher’s efforts for organization.
With many other benefits apart from the aforementioned, MOOCs no doubt stand pre-dominant in today’s world, where technology leaves its essence everywhere imaginable. MOOCs are delivered online to masses and are available for free. Most importantly, in this economy which is overflowing with knowledge and demands skills more than anything else, MOOCs help mould the motive of education from simply transferring information to helping students develop the necessary skills and attributes to be able to succeed in today’s job market. I hope that in future, teachers will increasingly take responsibility of their own learning and will continue to be provided access to high-quality professional development opportunities through online aides like MOOCs.
MOOCs have led to huge technological improvements as well as innovations in the process of education. I suggest MOOCs to any teacher who has even the slightest interest and eagerness to develop professionally, to come and try MOOCs and feel the difference. If you have any recommendations, additional knowledge or seek clarification, please don’t hesitate to share with us. The Comment Box awaits you.
