With blended MOOCs, the ‘control’ is distributed

I recently read an article by Professor Sadagopan, Director – IIITB on the transition from ‘carrier’ to ‘content’ to ‘control’ and was strongly struck by its relevance to the field of education today. The continuum has moved from schools and colleges (carrier) to courses/study material (content) to control (MOOC platform providers and teachers.)

Shared Control in Blended MOOCs

Today, I conducted a session to create awareness on #BlendedLearning and I was once again reminded of how blended learning creates distributed control amongst teachers, platform and learners.

• The teacher defines the correct learning path for her/his learner
• The platform enables the navigation and defines access to content
• The learner controls the when and how the content is consumed

Blended Teaching In India

With MOOCs being increasingly used for #BlendedLearning worldwide, I’m really rejoiced to see the openness with which it is being accepted in India. The MBA faculty I’ve been talking to (more than 200 in number) are most eager to start using MOOCs in their classroom. When I asked one of the attendees of my session today, “Why are you here?”, she said,

I know MOOCs represent innovation and I’m here to learn.

And that is the need of the hour – the need for a teacher to open herself to ‘learning,’

As IIMB continues on its journey to produce high quality MOOCs in Business and Management and works towards improving management education in India, I’m positive about multiple models emerging in the #BlendedLearning space:

1. Complete learning on the MOOC with in-class examinations
2. Specific modules on the MOOC, in-class modules and examinations
3. Each module in blended mode with digital and classroom learning

It’s an exciting time to be a student – because the student can now control his/her learning; this control is on the type of content to consume, the mechanism to learn and the time/place of learning. As education unbundles itself and allows control to be shared among the teachers and the learners, the learning is bound to grow exponentially.

What have been your experiences with blended control, both from teaching and learning perspectives? Share in your comments below. Together, let’s shape the blended future of education.

[This post was written by Ramya Srinivasan, Programme Manager, IIMBx]