Online Courses: An Alternative To Higher Education?

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Massive open online courses (MOOCs) let one easily study under the programs of the most prestigious and high-priced universities from anywhere. Apart from the best known courses from Stanford and Harvard Universities, as well as Hong Kong and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, more and more online courses are annually offered by the higher educational institutions in a variety of disciplines.

HSE is not an exception: the individual plan of every student includes various courses on the Coursera and OpenEdu platforms. Let’s now consider the subject of online education in details.

Online education or distance learning at a higher educational institution is advertised as comprehensive education, in which you watch video recordings of lectures instead of attending lectures. Is it a real comprehensive education? Can online university compete with traditional lectures and seminars?

The principle of online courses is that a student watches lectures in a video format, and then passes some tests, sends written works for evaluation and can even receive a diploma/certificate after graduation. Whether it will be highly regarded or not is another question.

So what encourages people to undertake online courses?

• need for obtaining a certificate;
• thirst for knowledge and skills;
• desire to fill the spare time.

Even these noble intentions have some reservations:

1. More often than not, such certificates of online courses completion are not regarded as something serious by employers. But these certificates are still a good addition to the existing university diploma as a certificate of advanced training;
2. New skills are not formed immediately after listening to lectures. One can acquire the knack of doing something only during practice;
3. There are many other less stressful ways to pass the time. Even watching YouTube will be more enjoyable than taking an online course, as the system will not put pressure on you with deadlines for unfulfilled tasks and will not send reminders to the mail for something urgent to watch every few days.

Let us now turn to the reality of HSE. Higher School of Economics supports the trend of online education: each student has at least 1 online course in the curriculum since 2016.

The selection and number of online courses in HSE is determined by the following factors:

• the academic administration (i.e. the head or the academic board of the education program), when forming the curriculum, determines the number and the format of studying;
• any HSE student can add an online course to his/her curriculum after agreement with the academic board of the educational program;
• students can study some disciplines in online or blended format by the decision of the university administration. By the way, disciplines of the general bachelor degree program are taught mainly in a blended format by decision of the university administrators.

Summing up, HSE students of any course may encounter mandatory online courses on three occasions:

• as an optional discipline; 
• when studying a general bachelor's degree discipline;
• if necessary, when completing a discipline in blended format with the inclusion of online courses.

Opinions

While studying this issue, I interviewed some students and teachers on the online courses topic. Representatives of the adult generation and supporters of the traditional approach to learning agreed that online courses are good as electives for traditional seminars and lectures, i.e. across the curriculum. Meanwhile, students and postgraduates consider it possible to completely replace some disciplines with online courses.

Here are some quotes from the interviews:

“The ability to align with the best students during studying is really motivating and contributes to personal growth. Online courses will definitely not be able to provide it”.

 

“Online education can be objective only if we are talking about mastering some hard skills. In case we are talking about soft skills, then online education will not be helpful”.

 

“Online education implies a huge personal responsibility. Motivation is crucial. Not many people find it easy enough. The majority of students just neglect studies without even starting”.

 

"The atmosphere elevates the mind. People enter Stanford, Harvard or HSE to communicate with engaged people and to find themselves within this "consistent mass". After Stanford graduation, let's say, doctors have no right to say that they don’t know something, because it undermines Stanford’s status. Therefore, one studies so as not to undermine his/her own reputation and also the status of the institution. So, the institution atmosphere teaches. I stand in full solidarity with it”.

Considering all the mentioned above, there are following disadvantages of such an approach to education. However, these disadvantages can be interpreted differently with individual characteristics of a person:

It is worth considering that this is a very one-sided process.

Online education in its essence cannot be considered as a comprehensive education. A full-fledged education is not only listening to lectures. The feedback from student to teacher and vice versa is still an integral part of this process.

Clarification of incomprehensible information on the forums cannot be compared with the discussion in the classroom. In fact, a participant of an online course is left alone with unintelligible topics of the program. As a result, the reluctance to go into the matter “right here, right now” is likely to increase the future mistakes exponentially.

In addition, a classical approach to education cultivates a certain mindset, through constant social interaction among teachers and students. At the bare minimum, online education in a room deprives one of constructive disputes with classmates during breaks, communication on personal topics during lunches and an effective competition among equals during the academic year.

Self-management and motivation factors will also be a major problem for many during such courses.

The lack of ritual before starting daily educational process (there are no small things that put in the "learning tune"), whether it is collecting educational supplies, traveling to the university, buying coffee on the way, preparing homework, etc. When university studies begin, students are integrated into an existing system. This is much easier than creating one's own ritual with online education.

The existing opportunity to break the deadline demotivates the student.

With an independent study of a discipline, the student may face the desire to put a task execution on the back burner. Without external motivators (such as reprimand from a teacher, getting a bad mark for not delivered on time work), the importance of discipline comes down in student's opinion.

Mussy algorithm of content uptake

A huge selection of courses at MOOCs on each subject can nonplus a student, while the curriculum at the university has already been optimally compiled.

The idea of ​​online education is great, but it that’s good for those who do not have any opportunity to get a good education another way.

Online courses are an alternative way to gain knowledge. If one lives in a remote region or does not have the opportunity to pay for education enough. But if there is a chance to enter a leading university in the country, it should not be neglected in favor of online courses. Online courses can be compared with semi-finished products instead of a full meal, as one has to put up with the lack of objective advantages listed above.

Text by
Anastasia Averina