Educators at Penn State, which attracted more than 300,000 students to its first batch of MOOCs, said in October the sheer number of MOOC students provided a never-before-seen chance for education-technology advocates to gather information about web-based learners.
“The volume of participation opens the door for tremendous research and evaluation opportunities,” Craig Weidemann, Penn State’s vice president for outreach and vice provost for online education, said in an announcement.
The popularity of Penn State’s first MOOC offerings, faculty members said, was encouraging to those who participated in the classes attended by students across the globe, even though there’s no direct educator-student interaction.
“It’s hard not to be motivated as a teacher when you see so many people who are just craving more of this stuff,” said Anthony Robinson, who taught Penn State’s Maps and the Geospatial Revolution MOOC, which had more than 48,000 students, according to the university.
- Research: Social media has negative impact on academic performance - April 2, 2020
- Number 1: Social media has negative impact on academic performance - December 31, 2014
- 6 reasons campus networks must change - September 30, 2014