Massive Open Online Courses offer a brain boost of free education

Wondering how to keep your teenager busy this summer when summer jobs are thin on the ground? Fancy tipping your toe back into education? Grainne McGuinness is raving about MOOCs, short online courses, many of which are free.

HAVE YOU thought about further study, but are unsure about whether you can commit to a course? Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are an exciting development that could be exactly what you are looking for.

These are online, generally free, open access courses. Potential students can access them to learn about a huge variety of topics. MOOCs are normally much shorter than Open University or traditional distance learning courses, and don’t require as much of a time commitment per week. Students do not usually receive certification for completion, although some providers offer that option for a fee.

I first heard of MOOCs when I took redundancy from AIB 18 months ago. I was keen to retrain for a different career, but after eight years in the bank, I was nervous about signing up for a course. It felt like a long time since I had left college and I worried about getting back into the habit of study.

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I came across an article about MOOCs and they seemed like an ideal way to ease myself back into learning without a major financial or time commitment. I chose a psychology course offered on MOOC provider Future Learn. It cost nothing to sign up, and all I was asked to commit to was five hours work per week for six weeks.

The first MOOCs appeared in 2008 and they really exploded into public consciousness in 2012. In that year MOOC providers Coursera, Udacity, EdX and Open Learn were all founded and began offering a huge array of courses to potential students, for free and accessible online.

These are not fly-by-night organisations. Coursera was established by computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University. Since the foundation, more than 13 million people have enrolled on their courses. They currently offer 1,040 courses, through partnerships with 119 institutions, including Brown University, Princeton, University of London and Copenhagen Business School.

Are #moocs the key to democratizing education in the developing world? Check out this image by Online Course Report. pic.twitter.com/VO8ltYmBTj

— Dartmouth EdTech (@DartEdTech) May 22, 2015

The website I used, Future Learn, was founded by the Open University and began offering courses in October 2013. Their partners include the Queen’s University, Belfast, the Museum of Modern Art and the British Film Institute.

The site was easy to navigate and I found the course I chose absorbing. It was offered by the University of Warwick and overseen by their Professor of Behavioural Sciences Nick Chater. Each week would start with an introductory article, followed by video lectures by Chater, a doctoral student or guest speakers. Then there were online experiments or self-tests to explore the new ideas, and an assessment to see how well participants had understood the material. It felt impressively professional and worthwhile, considering I didn’t pay a penny for it.

Committing to and completing five hours study for the course duration was the perfect reintroduction to learning, and before it had even finished I had signed up for a one year journalism diploma from a traditional college. The MOOC had given me the confidence in my ability to study.

The range of courses available is staggering and range from the theoretical to extremely practical. Want to dip a toe into learning a foreign language? There will be a MOOC for that. If watching CSI has given you a new-found interest in Forensic Science or you fancy yourself as the next Steve Jobs? On a website somewhere soon a course is starting that will allow you to explore your interest for free and in your own time. It’s a whole new world of learning.

SO IF YOU have ever though about going back to study, either full or part-time, there has never been more choice available. Even if you have something more traditional in mind, you can take advantage of a MOOC as I did, to get your study muscles back in shape and boost your confidence.

MOOCs are also ideal for secondary students debating between various third level options. If you have a teenager humming and hawing between different college options, and about to be a loose end for the summer holidays, I heartily recommend they explore one or more of their potential choices with a course.

For students who have made their choices and are hoping to start college in the autumn, there is a MOOC especially tailored to them. Through Future Learn, the University of East Anglia is offering a six week course, ‘Preparing for University’. It takes three hours a week and starts in mid-June — just the thing to keep them occupied and distract from fretting about Leaving Cert results.

Courses starting shortly that would suit second-level students

Interested in computer programming: Programming for Everybody in Python offered by the University of Michigan through www.coursera.org. Starts June 1 for 10 weeks — two to four hours study per week.

Interested in marketing: The Secret Power of Brands offered by the University of East Anglia through www.futurelearn.com. Starts June 1 for six weeks — three hours study per week.

Interested in medicine: Good Brain, Bad Brain: Basics offered by the University of Birmingham through www.futurelearn.com. Starts June 8 for three weeks — three hours study per week.

Interested in business: Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making offered by Delft University of Technology through www.edx.org. Starts June — 40 hours in total, self-paced.

Interested in music: Fundamentals of music offered by the University of Edinburgh through www.coursera.org. Starts August 3 for five weeks — three hours study per week.

Interested in history: Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the lost harbour of ancient Rome offered by the University of Southampton through www.futurelearn.com. Starts June 15 for six weeks — four hours study per week.

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