Coursera - Free Online Courses From Top Universities | Coursera

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are a wonderful way to further your own knowledge in an area in which you already have interest or expertise, or to explore other interests that are more hobby related, such as an introduction to classical music, or art, or computer programming, or history.  There are many MOOCs out there, but Coursera strikes me as one that is particularly impressive because of it's open source access to some of the worlds top universities.

The main difference between taking MOOCs and other traditional courses whether face to face or online, is the al la carte way you can select courses.  Rather than being degree based, you can select learning specifically related to a topic of interest, even if it is not exactly in your line of work.  For example, one course I'm interested in is related to "learning how to learn" by University of California, San Diego.  It is taught by a Professor of Engineering and a Professor of Biological Studies which is terrific, since most of the professors in my education degrees have backgrounds in education.  The exposure to thinking about learning in different disciplines is a rarity.

With a wide range of topics from all over the world, and in a variety of languages, MOOCs like Coursera make learning accessible.  Since Coursera is obviously a college level course, High School educators may be able to integrate some of the courses into their curriculum as extension work, or even as a unit of work.  It would depend on how flexible the curriculum could be.  For all levels of K-12 education MOOCs can be a great professional development tool.  I see them as a great way to train teachers at a relatively low cost, in a flexible environment. The quality of the content is credible, and MOOCs could initiate some very rich collaborative learning experiences for educators, and they select topics that are meaningful.

With Coursea, there are some fees, but there is also Financial Aid available.  Perhaps schools could plan to compensate teachers for one MOOCs training each year so long as it is justifiably connected to their professional context.

Take a look at this video from Dave Corrnier (shared with my by my professor Ashley Shaw at Royal Roads University).  It will provide some interesting insights into the way MOOCs can be a viable way to further our studies and encourage students to take ownership of their own development.