E-learning is a great advantage for businesses as well as individuals. It is an effective way to broaden your knowledge or even to retrain. Some even use it for their leisure, in an understandable way (“Learning to garden in 10 videos”) or less comprehensible (“A complete history of socks”, about 350 slides). The MOOC was previously considered to be part of the elearning, but over time, it has undergone major changes. He has distinguished himself more and more. Now it is considered to be a full-fledged method, with its pros and cons. What sets MOOC apart from e-learning?
DTargets that vary
E-learning is a distance learning course in its own right. According to the definition made by the European Union, it consists in providing more quality learning through new technologies, the Internet and multimedia. It makes resources and services more accessible for learners. This makes remote collaboration and communication between instructors and trainers easier. E-learning is described as “closed” because the courses given are only reserved for people who have previously registered with the creating organization. Generally, this type of online training is carried out via LMS platforms. Learners' paths, for their part, may or may not be a diploma (let's just say it in advance: the sock history course is not a diploma course). The trainers are responsible for the development of the courses and possibly the communication with the learners. Nevertheless, e-learning, in its limited framework, is aimed at an audience that seeks to acquire fairly specific skills and knowledge. Learners can self-study freely and do not benefit from the assistance of a tutor. Nevertheless, the creating organization reserves a space for them to interact to ensure exchanges. On the socks training forum, it's a bit dead, but oddly enough, whoever is talking about fifty shades of gray is very lively. While it's not a very exciting color, gray. In addition, the messages don't seem to have anything to do with the subject. Mysterious.
The MOOC or Massive Open Online Course, for its part, is considered a branch of e-learning, but it is beginning to differentiate itself more and more from it. This online training is a kind of association between open and closed e-learning courses. It does not in fact require registration within the creating organization and is open to all. As for the course flow, it is almost similar to that of the closed e-learning environment. MoOCs are mostly free, but there are more and more trainers who offer paid models with school leaving certificates. The return on investment of this type of training is generally quite interesting.
A different dimension
While e-learning is indeed a part of our world, the MOOC is not on the same space-time dimension. Said like that, it sounds like science fiction but we just like to piss you off: keep reading, it's totally serious. The MOOC targets all learners who want to enroll in online training, regardless of the city where they live. It can thus reach tens of thousands of people spread across the globe. Provided, of course, that it is likely to be of interest to as many people. “What to do with a square once an adult” is for example a subject likely to gather crowds. It's intriguing nonetheless. E-learning, on the other hand, has a narrower scope. Sometimes, it is even set up by a company only for its employees. This distance training can in fact be carried out in a group or individually, depending on the needs of each one. Its difference with the MOOC also lies in the learning methods, pedagogy and supervision. This type of training is mainly based on social learning. To facilitate learners' access to the course, the creating organization sets up a system that is both simple and automatic for the MOOC. Forums are also available to promote exchanges between learners. Stephen Downes, one of the creators of the MOOC, explained that it mainly has an event dimension. It is therefore not a full-fledged training and is limited in time. While e-learning is a course that must be followed more or less over the medium term, MOOC is for the short term. On the other hand, it can happen several times a year, depending on the schedules of the organizers or possible chestnuts, such as the Saint-Pied-sous-Jambon Sock Festival. In all cases, the appearance of this kind of formation results from the digital transformation, new technologies and the rapid learning needs of professionals in many fields. In addition, the production of a MOOC is cheaper compared to that of e-learning.
Different pedagogical values
The difference between MOOC and e-learning also lies in learning resources. For courses intended for thousands of people, simplicity is the order of the day. The learning devices are therefore not the same. In addition to course materials that can be supported mainly by video recordings or images, participants also benefit from other resources such as automatic exercise corrections. For e-learning, resources are available either in a directory or in the library. Everyone can use them as they see fit. Some trainers even offer courses in real time if they consider it necessary to facilitate the understanding of a module. For the evaluation of each person, quizzes and various exercises are offered. New tools are beginning to emerge, such as the vr, which can be integrated into a MOOC or an e-learning course. Imagine seeing socks from all eras in your office, observable at 360°!
Because of their differences, MOOC and e-learning do not have the same popularity. If you absolutely have to pick a winner, it's any training method that talks about socks. Huh? No, nothing, we were checking to see if you were following. So, if we absolutely had to name the most popular, e-learning would win. However, this does not mean that the MOOC does not have followers. Be that as it may, the trend is more towards a mixture of genres... Are you familiar with blended learning?
