Comments on: Scaling

By: Internet Time Blog : 195 posts about MOOCs

Internet Time Blog : 195 posts about MOOCs — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:01:32 +0000

[…] Scaling CLARK QUINN | MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2012 […]

By: Working Smarter, March 2012

Working Smarter, March 2012 — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:45:53 +0000

[…] Scaling-Â Clark Quinn, March 26, 2012 […]

By: Sahana

Sahana — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 06:01:58 +0000

I echo Viplav’s sentiments. Loved meeting you at EDGEX2012.
Having been a school teacher, I also feel that MOOCs can enable students to develop self-learning skills with appropriate facilitation. This is one of the skills often lacking in students in the current education context because of the syllabus-driven, rote learning that the system fosters. There is sure to be a policy impact but I am not venturing there.

Thanks,
Sahana

By: Anirudh Phadke

Anirudh Phadke — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:44:10 +0000

Thanks Clark!

It is important to know the magnitude of the task at hand, but we shouldn’t get unduly distracted by the “not-so-trivial” differences in the figures. As someone at the conference had rightly pointed out, India has to begin with all efforts and in all directions. Anything we achieve may still be less in percentages and proportions, but fairly large in absolute numbers!

I have become an avid believer in the MOOC philosophy, especially in the manner in which India can get benefited. Since the magnitude is large, your hierarchical approach of training makes sense. Its only the real implementation that still eludes my senses. Given the low penetration of internet and smartphones, we would need a physical equivalent of MOOCs. Going by the low supply of skilled manpower in the technical domains like carpentry, electrical maintenance etc, I believe the right way would be get them “off-the-block” with minimal training (through what is popularly called as “crash courses”) and then motivate them to further polish their training with short-term advanced courses.

The training itself can be a hybrid delivery mode for maximum resource utilization.

Regards,

Anirudh

By: Viplav Baxi

Viplav Baxi — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:29:16 +0000

Thanks, Clark!
IMHO, MOOCs and the possible virality of facilitators is what excites me most. It s what I call leveraging scale to meet the problems of scale. There are enough formal and “informal” teachers that can facilitate learning in a MOOC (which is what Freeman is also trying to do with Jaaga). My sense is, and this needs more reflection, that there is possibly a policy impact to this though – perhaps the government could create formal environments where the MOOC mechanisms could be an acceptable option, perhaps as an adjunct to the formal system to start with – sort of a change within the system.
Again, loved having you at EDGEX!
Regards,
Viplav