Vocational education and training - VET

A debate started to untangle the relevance and effectiveness of offering online skills development courses, and the challenges related to neglecting the importance of face-to-face instruction. 
* Search using the title 'Online or e-learning mode of Skill Development courses?'
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Keep up, keep up. If you've only just caught on to the concept of online university courses called Moocs, then you're in danger of falling behind again.
Harvard is moving on to Spocs - which stands for small private online courses.
The smaller class size will allow "much more rigorous assessment and greater validation of identity and that will be more closely tied to what kind of certification might be possible.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24166247

A description of the five steps that will help you succeed in a MOOC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v;=r8avYQ5ZqM0

Series of articles on MOOCs
- MOOCs Will Change the University Business Model
- Online Courses Are a Double-Edged Sword
- MOOCs Are Easy Targets, but Don’t Count Them Out
- There Is No Business Model for MOOCs Yet
- Jury’s Still Out on the MOOC Model
- With MOOCs, the Strong Get Stronger. But Everybody Else…
- Why I’m Skeptical About MOOCs
- Let’s Hope MOOCs Kill Classroom PowerPoints
http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/tag/opportunities-and-risks-in-the-mooc-business-model/

Open Universities Australia’s (OUA) MOOC platform, Open2Study, has reached 100,000 enrolments -- with 53,000 students from more than 180 countries – since its launch in April. 32 courses are available on the platform, with 60% of enrolments now from overseas nations (the top 5 are from the US, India, the UK, Spain and Canada). http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20131029072955369

Coursera is an education company that partners with the top universities and organizations in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. Our technology enables our partners to teach millions of students rather than hundreds.
Coursera currently offers 545 free, online courses in several languages: English, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, German, Ukrainian, Arabic, Italian and Japanese.
https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcoming

Aimed at boosting skills, employability and supporting the modernisation of education, training and youth systems, the seven-year programme will have a budget of €14.7 billion - 40% higher than current levels. More than 4 million people will receive support to study, train, work or volunteer abroad, including 2 million higher education students, 650 000 vocational training students and apprentices, as well as more than 500 000 going on youth exchanges or volunteering abroad.
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1110_en.htm

What is the biggest challenge facing online and distance learning today?

- What is the biggest opportunity that online and distance learning has today?
- Keeping in mind the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for online and distance learning today, what is the one key step that post-secondary education could take to move online learning to the next level?
- Conversely, what is the one thing to absolutely avoid?
- Which current or emerging technology has the potential of radically transforming online and distance learning?

Thirteen experts from around the world were asked to reply to these 5 key questions.
http://www.contactnorth.ca/trends-directions/advice-online-learning-ontario-13-experts

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are courses offered online across the world with no charge for learners. The courses offer content at the college and university level, but do not offer credit. They make extensive use of short video lectures, often by leading professors, supplemented by online assignments and assessment and peer-to-peer discussion.
Total MOOC enrolment in 2013 is estimated at between 3.6 million and 5 million learners. The average completion rate is usually quoted at being below 10%.

Mobile or m-learning involves the use of broadband connected devices – smart phones, tablet devices, e-readers, and laptop computers – so that students can connect to learning opportunities either synchronously or asynchronously from anywhere in the world. The mobility has two dimensions - the students are not restricted to a classroom or any other physical location, and the devices are easily portable and usable for communication and collaboration, as well as information delivery. 

If it’s true that 65% of today’s grade school students will work in jobs that don’t exist yet, then we better get ready for some drastically different learning environments.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680348/mapping-the-future-of-education-technology

via EVTA - European Vocational Training Association

MOOCs presage a period of great change in higher education, but they will not kill off the traditional degree. After all, people still want to buy vinyl records in an era of MP3s. And so far there are insufficient numbers of graduates to force big shifts immediately. But MOOCs will prompt more rapid innovation in a sector facing enormous pressures over the cost of its basic product. Eventually the full-time residential four-year degree (three in Europe) could start to look out-of-date. Online education allows colleges to innovate with regard to the quality, length and cost of their offerings. It should be possible to offer shorter and cut-price degrees that are demonstrably equivalent (in terms of employability) to the degrees of today. Already there is pressure on publicly funded universities to accept online credits, and the American Council on Education says that it will evaluate MOOCs for college credit.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/10/economist-explains

The argument against assessment in MOOCs is that traditional means are impossible due to the volume of students. Crowdsourcing provides quality assessment through its diversity and in its patterns of open discourse. Crowdsourced responses help the assessment activity to serve as a knowledge building tool for both the student and the participating community. The authors advance the argument that two indices of learning are a student's ability to integrate learning elements and the subsequent discourse initiated by the student's integration.
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/mooc.2013.0004

In this paper, we will focus on a type of MOOC called a cMOOC because it is based on the theory of connectivism and fits the definition of an open educational resource (OER) identified for this special edition of JALN. We begin with a definition of the cMOOC and a discussion of the connectivism on which it is based. Definitions and a research review are followed with a description of two MOOCs offered by two of the authors. Research on one of these MOOCs completed by a third author is presented as well. Student comments that demonstrate how a cMOOC can facilitate intercultural connections are shared. We end with reflections, lessons learned, and recommendations.
http://sloanconsortium.org/jaln/v17n2/cmoocs-and-global-learning-authentic-alternative

A Chennai-based firm offers videos of course modules that students can access on mobile phones for free.
http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/vicbj3PcaVfh6qI0eYsaFI/Enabling-access-to-vocational-training-content-on-cellphones.html

Discussion of the role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in MOOCs. Excellent tool to understand the concept.
http://www.downes.ca/presentation/330

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/moocs-are-reaching-only-privileged-learners-survey-finds/48567
Related paper. The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and Why?
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have commanded considerable public attention due to their sudden rise and disruptive potential. The student population tends to be young, well educated, and employed, with a majority from developed countries. There are significantly more males than females taking MOOCs, especially in BRIC and other developing countries. Students’ main reasons for taking a MOOC are advancing in their current job and satisfying curiosity. The individuals the MOOC revolution is supposed to help the most — those without access to higher education in developing countries — are underrepresented among the early adopters.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964