Abstract
The rapid increase use of information technologies throughout educational institutions is changing the way teachers and students learn, work, and establish collaboration. The learning cycle is an ongoing process that is designed to improve the quality of, as well as collaboration among learners. Recent announcements from top Universities to turn to new forms of educational delivery called "MOOCs" (Massive Open Online Courses), have not only captured the interest of academics and students in higher education, but also the interest of students and teachers in the K-12 environment, in home schooling, or outside the classroom in general. With MOOCs, the teaching method is moving from the traditional transfer learning model where the teacher serves as the repository and transmitter of knowledge to the flipped classroom model where the learner interacts with other students, peers, and has flexible access to all information and resources around him before coming to the classroom. With the huge amount of online educational material this has become a useful and beneficial method in teaching. Speaking at the Association of Community College Trustees' leadership meeting in Seattle, October 2013 (gatesfoundation.org), Bill Gates said "The value of MOOCs comes when you use them to create hybrids that are the best of both worlds. Rather than having the instructor lectures during class and then send the students home with assignments, many instructors are now using MOOCs to flip the classroom". He also added "I'd be the first to say this is a period of experimentation, but we'll learn much faster if people jump in and engage". Hester Tinti-KaneVice President of Marketing and Social Media Strategy, Pearson (Seaman & Tinti-Kane (2013)), said "The more we know about effective uses of technologies for teaching and learning, the faster we can adopt these new practices, facilitate their proliferation across higher education, and increase student success". These massive open online courses which have global reach, unlimited participation, and open access over the internet via a combination of social networking and video podcasts is attracting a huge variety of students of different ages, nationalities, backgrounds, abilities, interests, etc. It's all based on connection where you have the ability to learn, interact, and collaborate not only locally and globally but also universally from anywhere and at any time. With MOOCs providers in the USA (Coursera, edX, Udacity), Europe (FUN, Iversity), UK (FutureLeam), Middle East (Rwaq, Edraak), or in Australia (Open2study) students can work on learning content outside of the classroom, at their own pace, and practice the application of what they learned in class. While some educators consider MOOCs as the future of higher education, others said they represent the beginning of education downfall. According to many surveys, it has been found that faculty members are not rejecting technology, in fact most of them believe in the ability of technology to bring transformative change to education but at the same time they feel that commercial considerations, rather than pedagogical considerations are driving the phenomenon of MOOCs. The objective of this study is to provide insights into recent developments of MOOCs and how they can be incorporated into high school curriculum. While it's too soon to say if MOOCs represent a substitution to traditional courses, they certainly bring a transformative change to our actual education in general and to the way our academic institutions are working.
For high school for example MOOCs could be used as blended-learning approach particularly in math and science. In higher education there is a lot of excitement about MOOCs and universities are still working hard on how to use them and what impact they could have on the value of a degree. A survey has been conducted to understand how students perceive learning outside the classroom through social media, online courses, school website, and private tutoring. 310 students have been surveyed during their end of the year exams at Global International School, an international school licensed by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education and open to all expatriates in the Jeddah community, and accredited by the International Accreditation body "Advanced" (http://www.advanc-ed.org/). On the question "Learning outside the Classroom has a Positive Impact on my Education" 44.52% said they strongly agree with the statement and 51.61% said they agree while 2.58% neither agree nor disagree. (C). 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.