Genke, E. A.

Tumakova, Natalia Aleksandrovna

Electronic archive of Tomsk Polytechnic University

64:E.A. Genke, N.A. TumakovaTomsk Polytechnic UniversityMassive open online course as the next stage in evolution of educationEducation has a very long history, since the prehistoric and ancient times tillnowadays. People always teach each other something new, share their ownexperience, develop their skills, and improve their knowledge. Of course, methods ofteaching have changed since the antiquity because of social and technologicalimprovements. And now in the Digital Age we have a lot of exciting educationalmethods: blended education, online education, gamification and so on. But the objectof our investigation is Massive open online courses (MOOC).What is MOOC? Massive open online course is an online course available for anunlimited number of people, usually it includes some video lectures, quizzes, ahomework and a final exam. Also, the MOOCs include communication betweenstudents and a professor or assistants provided by a forum. Usually it takes 8-10weeks to complete the course. MOOCs, based on the idea of education, are availablefor anyone, anywhere.MOOCs already have 7 million students worldwide. And the number of people,taking part in these courses, is constantly increasing. The first MOOC was launchedin 2008. ere 2300subscribers who signed up for this course. Nowadays 50000 people is a typicalnumber of students enrolled in a course, although some popular ones have 250000students.These courses give you a perfect opportunity to supplement your educationalprogram, because sometimes we want to know subjects which are not included in oursyllabus. We have a great opportunity to take courses from the best universities of theworld, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, PrincetonUniversity, Stanford University and so on. You can find a field you want to study orto work in. You can even make your own syllabus. Some universities in Europe andin the USA allow students to take credits from these courses. You can gain specificskills to do your job better or to find a new job. You can satisfy your curiosity. Andstudy anywhere you wantanytime you like.same experiensmall groups, where a teacher can control the level of material understanding. Alsoyou should always motivate yourself, because you are the only person who caresabout it. There is one more drawback: you need a computer, or something like this.65Why do we think that improving of MOOC is so important? Well, because freecourses completely change the face of higher education. You can easily learn newthings, communicate with students and teachers all over the world, and take coursescountries, in our opinion,education and develop massive open online courses to change our education systemand the world.References1. Pappano, Laura. The Year of the Mooc . The New York Times. 29 November 2012.2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course ( 4.2014).K.V. Timkina, T.S. MylnikovaTomsk Polytechnic UniversityMental maps as a method to train specialists of different profilesThe technology of mental maps nowadays is one of the most innovative andeffective methods to work with information.The majority of people, whether students or workers, use notes, however, mindmapping technique is getting increasingly popular throughout the world.The most important feature of the mental maps is the fact that this techniqueenables us to energize both hemispheres of the brain and makes it possible tosynchronize their activities. This way it unleashes human mental potential. As aresult, the efficiency of generation of new ideas increases several times as much, andproblems previously treated as a challenge appear to be a piece of a cake.A mental map is an easy to use tool to display the process of thinking andstructuring information in a visual form.The mental map is used to:take down in shorthand thoughts and ideas while thinking over a problem;arrange information so that the brain perceives it easily since the information isrecorded in the "language of the brain";Mental maps (original Mind maps ®) were developed by Tony Buzan, a well-known writer, lecturer and consultant on intelligence, psychology of learning andthinking problems [2. P. 147-151].Mental maps are easy to perceive, often indispensable to fix the trends in theprocess of brainstorming, generating ideas, finding the right information whileplanning projects, resources, finance, and time using mental map technique it ispossible to effectively learn and make presentations [4].

Massive open online course as the next stage in evolution of education

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