Online Universities

German marketing professor Andreas Kaplan has proposed a classification scheme that places online distance courses into four distinct groups:

MOOCs (massive open online courses): unlimited in the number of participants, enabling them to learn asynchronously at their own pace.

SMOCs (synchronous massive online courses): unlimited in the number of participants, in which students participate synchronously and in real-time.

SPOCs (small private online courses) number of students is limited, learning takes place in an asynchronous manner.

SSOCs (synchronous small online courses) number of students is limited, require participants to follow the lessons in real time. wikipedia

Elite Colleges Started EdX as a Nonprofit Alternative to Coursera. How Is It Doing?, Jeffrey R. Young, edsurge.com 2021

An EdTech Company Bought edX from Harvard and MIT for $800 Million. Its Stock Price Has Plummeted Since, Chang and Cho 2022

1. Problem-centred: Learning is promoted when learners acquire skill in the context of real-world problems. Many contemporary learning theories and instructional models e Constructivism, Authentic Learning, Cognitive Apprenticeship, Situated Learning, Problem-based Learning, Expansive Learning, to name a few e are premised on the idea that humans learn better when they are engaged in solving problems and building knowledge than when they are presented with information they are required to memorise. Merrill uses the term ‘problem’ to denote ‘a wide range of activities, with the most critical characteristic being that the activity is some whole task rather than only components of a task and that the task is representative of those the learner will encounter in the world following instruction’ (Merrill, 2002, p. 45). He contrasts problem-based instruction with topic-centred instruction where a subject is taught in isolation from the real-world tasks. Instructional effectiveness of a course will be enhanced if the learning activities in the course give learners an opportunity to solve real-world problems, working through a progression of interrelated tasks, from the least difficult to the most difficult, that reflect the complexity of real-world settings.

2. Activation: Learning is promoted when learners activate existing knowledge and skill as a foundation for new skill. This principle is rooted in a key tenet of instruction e to start where the learner is. Instructional effectiveness of a course will increase if the course includes learning activities that help learners to recall and describe their relevant previous experiences, and to relate and apply these to what they will learn in the course. If learners have not had relevant experience, then a course should begin by helping learners acquire such experience, for example by providing real-world or simulated examples that learners can use as a foundation for their new learning. However, activation requires more than enabling learners to recall or build relevant experience; activation also requires learning activities that stimulate the development of the mental models and schemes that can help learners to incorporate the new knowledge or skill into their existing knowledge.

3. Demonstration: Learning is promoted when learners observe a demonstration of the skill to be learned. This principle highlights the importance of showing learners what they could do to apply the new information or skill in new situations rather than merely pre- senting them information about what to do. Effectiveness of a course is enhanced, firstly, when learners are shown examples of both poor and good practices; secondly, when the demonstration is consistent with the type of knowledge or skill being taught; and, thirdly, when learners are guided to relate general information or an organising structure to specific instances of the knowledge or skill being taught.

4. Application: Learning is promoted when learners apply their newly acquired skill to solve problems. Merrill's review highlighted the almost universal agreement among contemporary learning theories that applying new knowledge or skill to real-world tasks is a necessary condition for effective learning. Merrill observes, however, that in many courses, application does not move much beyond requiring learners to answer multiple-choice questions about the material they are presented with. This principle emphasises that applying knowledge to a single problem is insufficient for learning and that a course must provide multiple opportunities for learners to apply their new knowledge or skill to a wide range of real-world problems. A key corollary to the application principle is appropriate learner guidance, through diminishing coaching or ‘scaffolding’. The basis to this corollary is the observation shared by many learning theories that while in the early stages learners may need considerable support, as learners progress this support should be gradually taken away, with more control shifted to the learner to help build their independence. A key mechanism of scaffolding is feedback and most learning theories have long recognised feedback as the most important form of learner guidance.

5. Integration: Learning is promoted when learners reflect on, discuss, and defend their newly acquired skill. Learners have integrated new knowledge and skill into their everyday life when they are able to demonstrate change in behaviour or modification of their existing mental models and, when challenged, are able to defend their new knowledge or skill. Therefore, effectiveness of a course is enhanced when, firstly, learners are provided with opportunities to reflect on what they have learned in order to revise, synthesise, recombine and modify their new knowledge or skills; and, secondly, when learners are required to demonstrate and defend their new knowledge or skill to peers and others.

6. Collective knowledge: Learning is promoted when learners contribute to the collective knowledge.

7. Collaboration: Learning is promoted when learners collaborate with others.

8. Differentiation: Learning is promoted when different learners are provided with different avenues of learning, according to their need.

9. Authentic resources: Learning is promoted when learning resources are drawn from real-world settings.

10. Feedback: Learning is promoted when learners are given expert feedback on their performance.