The attached published paper offers some interesting observations, valid or not, on learning in general and MOOCs in specific. Two that hit me:
1) “…the evidence suggests that there is no reason to believe that MOOCs are any less effective a learning experience than their face–to–face counterparts. Indeed, in some aspects, they may actually improve learning outcomes.”
2) “Repeated study of previously recalled items did not result in increased retention compared to dropping those items from additional study. Repeated recall of items previously recalled, however, improved retention by more than 100 percent compared to dropping those items from further testing. Similarly, Roediger and Butler (2011) concluded that retrieval practice serves as a powerful mnemonic enhancer, often leading to significant improvements in long–term retention relative to repeated studying.”
I also agree with a commentator who believes that the efficiency of a method cannot be completely divorced form the subject.
It strikes me that John and Kris could produce a better paper.
LOL.
Yes, John and Kris have demonstrated the ability to produce reams of documentation.
And yes, it’s fascinating to start a chain of “what if” questions re learning…because perhaps for the first time in, I dunno, a hundred years or more, there’s a real opportunity to “start over from scratch” so to speak, and create fully realized alternatives to convention and status quo re what actually best supports learning.
Sure, there’s been various alternative methods and theories about learning out there, and some like Montessori actually have penetrated US education on a large scale, but overall, innovation has been sorely missed.
And now the pent up needs for change have been “released” by all the possibilities of new communication tools. Let a thousand innovations bloom.
I should hasten to add that innovation in learning also involves new awareness of how our mind/brain works… one of the those fields which is presently advancing by leaps and bounds.
And one more “nugget”… learning is a holistic undertaking….while we are sometimes comfortable in comparing ourselves to computers and other machines…in fact, anything that happens in humans is connected to all the other processes ongoing within our beings.
So, emotional IQ and health is involved, and pretty soon, all the other factors such as mentioned by “Hackschooler” LaPlante. Which, as I’ve noted elsewhere, included “spiritual health” as well, which is and will be an enormous challenge to address appropriately in new theories of learning.
Do people who seem well adjusted “spiritually” retain learning better? What are the spiritual practices most consistently correlated to success in learning? Are we ready for those sort of questions? Probably not.