With the development of global online-education technology, there is a tendency for MOOC and some other online courses to become more and more established. MOOC is a kind of learner-oriented course. As long as learners can surf the Internet, they can get free access to courses taught by renowned teachers of famous universities.
MOOC’s purpose becomes apparent simply by looking at its name.“M” represents “Massive”. Usually, there are hundreds of students in a traditional class. By comparison, usually thousands of students, at times up to 160 thousand students per class, attend MOOC courses at the same time.
“O” represents “Open”. Guided by personal interest, whoever wants to learn can be exposed to knowledge through MOOC. Regardless of your nationality, you only need an e-mail address to register and then participate in the class.
The second “O” is the abbreviation of “Online”. The learning process is completed online therefore it is not limited by time and space.
And finally, “C” is undoubtedly referring to “Course”. The large-scale online course storm began in the autumn of 2011. It is regarded as the greatest reform on education since the invention of printing. MOOC is really the dawn of tomorrow’s education and the year 2012 was called “the first year in the MOOC era” by the New York Times.
Wuhan University provides 7 online courses on the national MOOC platform (http://www.icourses.cn/imooc/). Since these courses went online, about 50 thousand people from all over the country have signed up. The courses are highly recognized by the online learners. The 7 online courses are: A Brief Introduction to Chinese Culture given by Professor Li Jianzhong, A Brief World History given by Professor Pan Yingchun, The Essence of Marxist Philosophy (Nine Chapters) given by Professor Wang Xinyan, Information Management Foundation given by Professor Ma Feicheng, Information Retrieval given by Professor Huang Ruhua, Microeconomics given by Professor Wen Jiandong, Literature Appreciation and Criticism given by Professor Chen Guoen. Among them, both Information Retrieval and Microeconomics attracted over 10,000 learners.
MOOC makes it possible for people to enjoy the high quality educational resources by stepping over the threshold of higher education. It is a reform that is worth advocating and supporting.
However, at the present stage, MOOC still can’t replace the traditional higher education completely. After all, the experience of campus life and the edification of campus culture can’t be replaced by online courses. Making use of the opportunity MOOC brings to us and combining MOOC and traditional education are the best ways to improve the development and management of Chinese universities.
(Rewritten by Aoqi Li, edited by Diana & Sijia Hu)
