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Very interesting article. I was at an Open Access week event recently that was a debate on the place of MOOCs in higher education. One point that another attendee raised about the completion rate of MOOCs that seemed really important to me was that many MOOCs require participants to register before viewing the content, and this can impact completion rate numbers. A person may only have the requisite information about whether or not the wish to participate once they have registered for the MOOC.

Thanks for sharing this! :) I am taking MOOC course about MOOC right now. I feel like completion could be a challenge for anyone who took it. I actually agree that completion is not everything in education. Since learning is more about understanding rather than completing, I think there is no point if someone did complete his/her MOOC but he/she does not understand about what he/she learned. However, I believe, in order to fully understand the course, it is better to complete what you have started.

I too feel that completion of MOOC is important. Other wise no point in participating in that MOOC. we also will get any information on the internet for knowledge gain. But there will be a regular follow up of the course for completing any MOOC. But only problem is having proper IT infrastructure to participate in that.

Thank you for sharing. On the one hand one can choose form the course lessons and material that they want and choose not to complete the whole course. Then of course one can not evaluate the course judging from the completion rate. On the other hand, ability to complete what is started develops human will-power and purposefulness. Otherwise the world is full of people with unfinished educations, short-term employments etc.

What the article says really is "MOOC completion rate is not a meaningful metrics about the course." Universities and institutions may need to have other metrics in order to evaluate whether to continue offer certain courses. As for individual participants, each person is her/his best critic on how much has been gained from the course.

Cierto, tal vez muchos no lo terminen. Yo creo que lo importante es el conocimiento aprendido.

Thanks for sharing this article. I'm in agreement with LeBar, completion of the MOOC is not the correct metric to be used for evaluation. The goal of many participants is to gain or increase knowledge on a topic which may be achieved without completing the whole course.

This ongoing MOOC is hard for me to complete since there is a lot of internet and network action required which I don't like to use at the moment. Still, I got so much Information that I will try to fulfill the requirements to pass it. It is not for the statistics - but for my personal support of the MOOC instructors (I wounder whether they notice)

i think MOOC will be more effective for exchange of knowledge e for certain important topic for stakeholder who aim self progress development

I have joined another MOOC and received the "statement of accomplishment" and it was totally a big disappointment. The design and the language used reflect mentality is not related to what they are teaching online. It is underestimating people around the world time and efforts by issuing a statement is not well designed and meaningless. The question would be: does it worth it to finish any course online? the knowledge is already free and affordable all over the net, why do I need to follow an institute organized free course? People are not finishing the MOOC courses because of frustration and disappointment and this has to be reviewed.

Tal vez no puede decirse que sea el futuro de la educación, pero si coadyuva para que el conocimiento pueda acercarse a cualquier persona, e incentivar al autoaprendizaje.

Habría que preguntarse cuál es el problema de que los estudiantes no concluyan los cursos MOOC, buscar las alternativas respectivas.MOOC ventanas de oportunidad para cualquier persona.

Similar example to what Adobe software has done with collecting information…users/students seem to have to accept this "new-normal" of spying, etc.

I agree. Cameras should be there for security, not for surveillance. But just like the Adobe software, before we use it we have to "agree" on its' terms. I believe very few actually read those agreements, because we have to use the software, "agreeing" on those terms might just be "agreeing" on allowing them to collect our information. I live in Vancouver, BC. I know there are people who dislike the idea of the buses with cameras. I personally like that idea, it makes me feel like I am protected. When I was in high school in Victoria, BC, I feel safe taking the taxi even when it is late, because they have cameras in every one of them. When I was in Hong Kong, I feel insecure taking a taxi even when it is noon. So even if some of our information or our identity is given away, I agree on the idea of having cameras on buses and taxi's. I wonder if there is a gender difference on this, and there is also a gender gap of taxi drivers, maybe that is also why I personally feel insecure. Back to the point, if the purpose of cameras is for security, I agree to that. If it is for surveillance, I do not think it is essential; referring to the Harvard University attendance, at least they should inform the students about it.

This line caught my eye: "The study was approved by the US federally mandated Institutional Review Board, which assesses research and determined that the study "did not constitute human subjects research" and therefore did not require prior permission from those captured by the study." I have been debating with my own campus IRB over what constitutes human subjects research and what doesn't--they seem to be operating under the idea that if it's not invasive medical studies involving blood or drugs, it's not really human subjects. I think the issue in this Harvard study is that the IRB also has a clause that if you are collecting data in public spaces and not interacting with the people there, it doesn't require IRB approval; the question is whether these classrooms should be considered public spaces. My feeling is they aren't--in order to be in a room at a particular time, a person has to have chosen to attend that class, and within college classes it is assumed that the students can know that what they say is to some extent private among their classmates and professor. Even if the photos were destroyed after analysis, the fact remains that there were cameras inside what I would consider private spaces, without the consent of the people doing what they might feel is dangerous work (given the current assault on public intellectuals and academic freedom). My guess is that Harvard could easily have asked all the relevant parties to sign consent forms at the beginning of a semester but not indicated on which days they would be filming--people would probably continue doing what they normally do either way, but at least would have the option of asking not to be filmed. There's always a way to set up an area in a lecture hall where the cameras couldn't reach, so students who didn't want to be on film could opt out.

Thank you so much for sharing this article, I meant to read it a few days ago and got side-tracked!

Thanks for sharing this! I have mixed feelings about this article. At first, I was super opposed to the whole initiative Harvard did to their students because I would feel that my privacy has been violated completely, but after realizing that there are many more subtler forms of violations in privacy online (social media sites, tracking cookies etc.) I wasn't as opposed to the article. Although initially, students were not informed about their surveillance, there were told in the aftermath, and their information was destroyed. When using social media sites or installing new applications, there are terms of agreement before continuing on with the installation in which personally I don't read at all. Those terms and conditions have statements inside which notify us of tracking personal information which I have not read earlier but am still not opposed to giving. The information is probably sold to advertisers and we're probably not aware of it but we still give them the information via the signup of the program. Hence, even though there are contradictory views and feelings about their initiatives, we should be more aware and cautious of other forms of surveillance when we sign up for things (e.g. social media sites etc.)

Thank you for sharing. This does raise some concern. I guess there may be good and bad with cameras installed in the school. The cameras installed without students' consents may be violating their privacy and rights. However, it may prevent wrong doings, i guess. When my friend was doing final exam, the prof asked the whole class to put their belongings in front of the classroom, but when he went to pick up his stuff after he was finished, his bag was missing. Through the security camera, they were able to see who stole his stuff.

Did any body else remember George Orwell's novel (1984). By accepting this type of behavior we accepting the image of a holly power that is ethical, care and neutral. Does this exist? and who will monitor the observers?

I think this is a really good point, who will monitor the observers? What kind of power do those people hold and what are they doing with all those information? It makes people uncomfortable.

Interesting news! It's surprising to get to know that Harvard University places cameras without letting students know, photographs them during lectures to measure attendance. This reminds me of my high school in China. When I was in high school, I remember that cameras were installed at the back of every classroom to prevent students from distraction in class or cheating during exams. It mainly worked as threatening students, from my understanding. Because you never know when the camera will be opened, actually, it never opened. What happened in Harvard University just reminded me of that, which is quite satiric.

Thanks for sharing this article. In my personal opinion, I think the action of secretly installed the cameras from Harvard University violates students' privacy. If it's just for measuring classroom attendance, I think Harvard University could definitely find a much better way instead of installing the camera.