It sounds almost too good to be true: a way for high school students to learn from others around the world, guided by teachers in their classrooms.
But high school teachers who supplement their instruction with a massive open online course — popularly known as a MOOC — have found a way to do just that.
A MOOC is usually a free online course that anyone in the world can take that can involve dozens — or thousands — of students. Many large universities have created MOOCs and the courses are usually made available to the public through a provider such as Coursera and Udacity. Students can also typically connect with their classmates through online discussion boards.
Many of the newer versions of MOOCs also have video lectures, says Wendy Drexler, chief innovation officer at the International Society for Technology in Education. But their ability to enable students to connect with others is what makes them different.
“You’re not just getting this perspective of your small group and your teachers, you’re getting the perspective of anybody else in the world,” says Drexler, who helped launch an engineering MOOC for high schoolers.
[Find out about online college courses for high schoolers.]
Gaining a new perspective on her field is what initially attracted Abbi Smith, who teaches teens upper-level math, to take a calculus MOOC from the University of Pennsylvania.
“I really liked the course and immediately saw that there could be possibilities with integrating it into my curriculum,” says Smith, the mathematics department chairwoman for Friends Select, an independent school in Philadelphia.
Smith and other high school math teachers from across the country used the calculus MOOC from Penn in conjunction with their own curriculums, as part of an experimental program with the university last year, she says.
“It was interesting for the kids because they got to see and experiment with a whole new learning reality that they hadn’t really experienced a lot of before,” she says. “And there’s some interesting things that you can do as a teacher.”
Typically students watched online lecture videos from the MOOC at home, she says. That allowed more time in class for the students to collaborate on problems and for Smith to give students individual help, in addition to in-class instruction.
“There is so much rich learning that happens while they are doing problems that it worked out really well,” she says.
But Smith says it was challenging to get a discussion going with the other high schools participating in the MOOC, as each class was never in the same place in the course at the same time.
[Learn about how high school teachers can vet new tech tools.]
Another challenge for high school teachers is that many of the MOOCs currently available are targeted toward a college level audience, not high schoolers, says Drexler.
But that is changing.
One of the largest MOOC providers, edX, recently announced a new initiative that includes the addition of more than 40 high school and Advanced Placement courses. Teachers can also explore new K-12 oriented MOOCs through the Canvas Network platform, another MOOC provider.
MOOCs on the college level have been criticized for low completion rates and a lack of personalization, but high school classes may not face the same concerns.
Drexler says that she doesn’t see virtual MOOCs as a replacement for face-to-face instruction in the K-12 setting. The MOOC is just another tool in the teacher’s toolbox and teachers need to think carefully about whether implementing a MOOC into their instruction makes sense, Drexler says.
“The MOOC is certainly not the class. It is one piece of a class,” says Smith. “It would be bad to add a MOOC just to have some sort of bells and whistles or to try something different. It has to be super valuable to the class, and very enriching and very engaging.”
Have something of interest to share? Send your news to us at highschoolnotes@usnews.com.
More from U.S. News
Earn High School Credits in Online Summer School
States, Districts Require Online Ed for High School Graduation
MOOCs a New Tool for High School Teachers originally appeared on usnews.com
