| The21stcentury witnesses the rapid development of the Internet, which coversall the aspects of people’s life. Along with the coming of the Internet, manyeducationalists begin to focus their attention on the study of the possibility whetherthe Internet can be applied to the promotion of education. From the appearance ofthe programmed instruction method in the1960s and1970s to the emergence ofopen courses at the beginning of the21stcentury and then to the fast growth ofMOOC, online education never stops its pace on the road of research and practicewith the continuous upgrade of the Internet.Nowadays, among online education, the most popular one is MOOC that isMassive Open Online Courses. MOOC is translated as “Mu Class” when it wasintroduced into China, which is the updated version combing all advantages of theformer online education. First, the analysis of the status quo of MOOC and theexamination of its history and the features demonstrated in its development will helpus have a better understanding of the particularity of MOOC. Moreover, theparticularity of MOOC, to a large extent, reflects the weakness of modern highereducation and also provides a reference for the improvement of higher education.Considering that MOOC is open and with large participation, it will pose a greatchallenge to the higher education. And whether we can make good use of MOOC tocope with the challenge actively is not only an opportunity for the higher educationbut also for the epoch. The thesis is intended to explore the relationship betweenMOOC and higher education based on the study of the development of MOOC andits particularity.The thesis consists of six parts: introduction, chapter one “the origin anddevelopment of MOOC”, chapter two “the classification of MOOC-------fromcMOOC to xMOOC”, chapter three “the analysis of the main features of MOOC”,chapter four “the influence of MOOC on the area of higher education” and theconclusion.First, the purpose of the statement, the significance, the research methodologyand literature review and so on are mainly discussed in the introduction part.Chapter one gives a review of the origin of MOOC as a proper term and itsdevelopment afterward.In chapter two, the classification of MOOC is mainly argued and discussed. According to the differences of MOOC’s basic learning theories, MOOC can bedivided into cMOOC to xMOOC. The learning theory of the former one is based onthe connectionism while the latter is based on the behaviorism which is moretraditional. Then a representative course of cMOOC to xMOOC is analyzed tosummarize their respective features and compare their differences.Chapter three is the body part of the thesis, which gives a detailed analysis ofthe specific features of MOOC. From the perspective of its network environment, themassiveness and openness of MOOC is expanded unlimitedly due to the Internet.Different from the former online resources, MOOC follows the interactive modelrather than the one-way output if MOOC is regarded as a complete class. Thecomparative method is applied in this part to contrast MOOC with traditional offlineclasses. Due to the different environment, although there are some similarities in thecourses and the teaching structure, the differences between them is also obvious. Byanalyzing the differences and similarities, we can have a clear idea of the specificfeatures of MOOC.Chapter four focuses on the influence that MOOC exerts on the area of highereducation. A great many differences exist between MOOC and the offline classes,which to a large extent mirrors the limitations and dilemma of the traditional offlineclasses. Therefore, MOOC will promote the reform of higher education. This chapterincludes four parts to elaborate the influence and significance that MOOC can bringto the reform of higher education. First, it is the great challenge that the teachingmodel of MOOC courses pose to the inherent teaching modal of higher education.Second, it is necessary for higher education constitutes to compete and cooperateunder the circumstance of MOOC. Third, from temporal perspective, highereducation plays a more important role in lifelong education with the help of MOOC.Finally, the transformation of teachers’role in this process is the main topic.The conclusion part is the summary of the previous parts and also draws anoutlook for the future of MOOC and higher education. |
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