Who should take a MOOC?: 9 types of lifelong learners who can benefit


Six months ago if someone were to tell me that she is following a MOOC I wouldn’t have known what she meant, MOOC News & Reviews reports. Halfway through an online course on Introductions to Genetics and Evolution, I still didn’t know what a MOOC meant until a teaching assistant answered my query in one the discussion forums. Since then MOOCs have been quite an interesting and novel experience for me. … In this article, I want to discuss who should take a MOOC, particularly lifelong learners who can benefit. When we think of education, we think of college students, dormitories, lecture halls and college classes, but MOOCs have changed this traditional way of looking at education. Online education is engaging many people from a wide range of age categories and backgrounds from across the world. In fact, as Carol Engler argues in this essay, MOOCs offer an opportunity for universities to redefine what they do to better include adult learners. … MOOCs can also help current students learn more about a specialized area of interest related to their chosen profession that isn’t taught in depth (or at all) at their current school. Take the case of a medical student who wishes to pursue a research career in neuroscience.

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