THE EFFICACY OF MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSE PLATFORMS FOR PROGRESSIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS AT TERTIARY LEVEL: THE CONTEXT AND PROSPECTS

Sameer Babu M, Ph. D.THE EFFICACY OF MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSE PLATFORMS FOR PROGRESSIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS AT TERTIARY LEVEL: THE CONTEXT AND PROSPECTS

Lets Begin

The effectiveness of institutional reform initiatives depends on the quality of teachers and on teachers' motivation to participate in training and implement innovations (Gorozidis & Papaioannou, 2014).This has a connotation in teachers professional development, for sure.

Concerns

The existing practices of blending technology for professional development of teachersThe efficiency of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the effective delivery of course for professional development of teachersThe status of and survey of the providers of MOOCs on various themes addressing teachers professional apprehensions, and The future of the MOOCs in facilitating the teaching community to grow professionally.

What it is! Professional Development

Professional Development can be defined as any purposive activity with effective and pre-determined methodology in a reflective atmosphere with an objective of further improvements in teaching learning and evaluation. [Babu M, Sameer, 2016]

Components

Why?Curricular and instructional strategies that have a high probability of affecting students ability to learn and in turn students learning achievement (Joyce and Showers, 2002), Professional development programmes have to focus more on enriching teachers knowledge of the subjects being taught, sharpening appropriate teaching skills, keeping up with developments in the individual fields and in education generally, generating and contributing new knowledge through creative assignments, and increasing the ability to monitor students work, in order to provide constructive feedback to students and appropriately redirect the process of teaching.

Multiple forms

like short-term courses, specific skill oriented sessions, workshops of different nature, demonstrations, hands-on experience based training sessions, seminars, conferences, lectures, and invited lectures, virtual sessions, video as well as teleconferencing modes, colloquiums, and reflective forums, and so on.

MOOCs

As an innovative as well as revolutionary move in the field of education, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are mushrooming since the last four to five years. And, the universities are competing to show off their innovations in the delivery of MOOCs. One of the effective mode of delivery of professional development programmes for teachers.

What and How?

Providers

Coursera and Udacity (Cooper & Sahami, 2013), edX from Harvard and MIT (Pappano, 2012), are the popular providers of MOOCs and these days they are more loosely defined as free, non-credit, massive courses (Pappano, 2012).

In Specific...Looking in to the early providers:

American public school teachers have free access to 15 online Duke courses as part of a new federal program aimed at improving professional development for educators. Duke is one of four American universities and a handful of other educational organizations offering massive free open online courses, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education.

...Udacity, one of the known course providers, make the teachers enrolled in many subject specific course like Introduction to Statistics, Introduction to Physics, Introduction to Psychology, which could be of effective use to professional development till 12th grade. Another trend setter, Udemy offers courses in the broad fields of Technology, Art, Math, Science, Humanities, Social Science, and Music. The MOOC provider edX-A joint project of Harvard and MIT- is also gives an array of courses which enables the professional teachers to have technological, instructional as well as techno-pedagogic skills. The edX offers courses from a number of top universities, like UC Berkeley, and University of Texas. The Canvas Network, another popular provider, offers courses from a variety of universities, like Columbia University, and Arizona State University.

Exemplars...Applying Principles of Behaviour in the K-12 ClassroomCommon Core in Action: Math Formative AssessmentImplementation and Evaluation of Educational TechnologyIntegrating Engineering into your Science ClassroomStudent Thinking at the CoreFoundations of Teaching for Learning

Power of MOOCsIf it is offered free of cost or with a nominal fee, the education sector will be flourishing like anything. Thus, advanced technology driven education can be provided through MOOC to ensure the implementation of innovations in teaching-learning process. Flexibility aspect of MOOCs-both in time and location facilitates the training needs of teachers. It may not be in conflict with their schedule of academic and personal life. Most teachers work long days then spend much of their time away from school to plan and grade. This makes finding time for professional development a challenge for most. Here the on-demand nature of MOOC-based learning helps them to cope up with the situation learning apposite skill sets.

Further...MOOCs provide adaptable content. This feature allows those responsible for managing professional development for teachers to customize the experience for their audience.Learning needs to be reinforced over a long period of time and teachers need to have an opportunity to practice, implement, ask questions, try again, and integrate new skills and information on a schedule that works for them and allows them to remember the information. MOOCs, if designed with this strategy in mind, have enormous potential to meet this need. MOOC content is often available for teachers to adapt to their own teaching.

What clashes?The key aspects to be addressed for formalizing non-formal learning are recognition, validation, and accreditation (RVA). Singh (2012) defines recognition, validation, and accreditation (RVA) of learning outcomes as a process that makes visible and values the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that individuals have obtained in various contexts and means in different phases of their lives. Furthermore, Singh (2012) states that the RVA of non-formal and informal learning is a key aspect in making lifelong learning a reality.

Future...In order to ensure the proper participation, there should be compulsory quiz programmes and further, there should be a little bit rigidity in forward movement (for eg:- if a specific number of answers are not correct they may not be allowed to go ahead). Evaluation should be through software so that the progress sheet or score sheet can be shown which would be working as a motivating factor to the learners, otherwise skipping of the steps will be done. There should be a standard follows up provisions along with each and every MOOC.

What is to be done in the context?In India what can be doneInitiation by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE)Level-wise course classificationFlexible scheduleProposal for the tailored courses to the best providersSurveying the demandsPublicity just like GIAN portalMotivation to schools of Education to initiate with such culture/system friendly coursesOne day follow ups till the systematic establishment of the systemOrientation by experts

Yes!Course development team especially and exclusively from educational technologyFlexibility ensured programmesMechanism of ensuring attendance for minimum hours and comments and collaborative activitiesClinics as reflective platformsCertificate leading to vertical mobility in career/professionLess fund required and can be recorded and transmitted somewhere else as per the demandOnce it is made can be used as a permanent ensuring copyright Teacher friendly as well as institutional friendly

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As the enrolment to such courses of professional nature, so they contribute to the better teaching-learning