Moo cs

MOOCs

Profile Name: Bongumusa

Surname: Madosnela

Student no: 201312877

I am a third year student doing my first Bachelor of Education Degree (Bed). I am majoring in English (Literature) and Physical Education

Language proficiency: IsiZulu, Sesotho & English

What are MOOCs?

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a fresh innovation in educational development. They have attracted great interest in the higher education community.

MOOCs are aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web

Not only are they free, they offer essentially unlimited enrollment to anyone interested. Based on Stephen Downes’ connectivist theory, MOOCs feature three aspects: open content, open instruction, and open assessment

Characteristics of MOOCs

Scale of numbers – no participation limit

No formal entry requirement

Virtual Learning Environment is not the centre of the course

Use a variety of (new) social media and online tools

Learner-centred

Increased student participation and self-direction

Facilitators create the environment not way of learning

Scattered chaos

High drop out rate

Can be Community of Practice

Brief History of MOOCs Open Education Movement – Open content, open knowledge, open content

Connectivism – learning is successful if we connect and build relevant networks

CCK08 – Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Course run in 2008

Standford MOOCs (2012)– Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Databases

Platforms– Coursera– Udacit

My Field of Study My field of study is English and what interests me the most in the

English language is Literature and Grammar.

I am mostly interested in British Literature as I believe it gives insight to its readers as far as humans and human life in general is concerned.

The British literature is remarkable in its use of language which make one not to see things on a surface level but requires them to look for a deeper meaning that one can find as they read.

Not only that, the other reason I am interested in English literature is that it creates critical thinkers and reflective individuals who are cautious and thoughtful of the things they do and/or say.

English literature is the literature which is

distinctly written in the English language, as opposed to differing languages. English literature includes

literature composed in English by writers not

necessarily from England nor primarily English-

speaking nations.

Until the early 19th century, this article deals with literature from Britain written in English; then

America starts to produce major writers and works in literature. In the 20th century America and

Ireland produced many of the most significant works of

literature in English, and after World War II writers from the

former British Empire also began to challenge writers from Britain.

The value of literature It is a curious and prevalent opinion that literature, like all art, is a mere play of

imagination, pleasing enough, like a new novel, but without any serious or practical importance. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Literature preserves the ideals of a people; and ideals--love, faith, duty, friendship, freedom, reverence--are the part of human life most worthy of preservation.

The Greeks were a marvelous people; yet of all their mighty works we cherish only a few ideals,--ideals of beauty in perishable stone, and ideals of truth in imperishable prose and poetry. It was simply the ideals of the Greeks and Hebrews and Romans, preserved in their literature, which made them what they were, and which determined their value to future generations. Our democracy, the boast of all English-speaking nations, is a dream; not the doubtful and sometimes disheartening spectacle presented in our legislative halls, but the lovely and immortal ideal of a free and equal manhood, preserved as a most precious heritage in every great literature from the Greeks to the Anglo-Saxons.

All our arts, our sciences, even our inventions are founded squarely upon ideals; for under every invention is still the dream of Beowulf, that man may overcome the forces of nature; and the foundation of all our sciences and discoveries is the immortal dream that men "shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

The value of literature cont. In a word, our whole civilization, our freedom, our progress, our

homes, our religion, rest solidly upon ideals for their foundation. Nothing but an ideal ever endures upon earth. It is therefore impossible to overestimate the practical importance of literature, which preserves these ideals from fathers to sons, while men, cities, governments, civilizations, vanish from the face of the earth.

It is only when we remember this that we appreciate the action of the devout Mussulman, who picks up and carefully preserves every scrap of paper on which words are written, because the scrap may perchance contain the name of Allah, and the ideal is too enormously important to be neglected or lost.