The area I'd like to research is the online education domain and I can't think of a better environment to do that it than a university (such as the University of Toronto) and that too, within the iSchool.
U of T, itself, has started to partner with some prominent MOOC platforms to offer courses and the timing couldn't be better to understand different stakeholders' motivations for participating in the online education movement and what the future of it is likely to be.
There are various aspects of online education that I would like to investigate. One of these (probably the most interesting to me) is the actual experience of those taking MOOCs/other online courses. What is their motivation for taking certain courses, what hurdles do they encounter in terms staying engaged and making it through, and after they are done, are they satisfied? Are they, for the most part, closer to achieving the objectives that they set out for themselves at the start?
The iSchool, being so multidisciplinary and focusing on projects at the intersection of information, technology and society, is the perfect place to carry out work of this nature. The issue I'm looking at is the impact of readily accessible knowledge/information (by way of tangible skills and other kinds of learning) on society and how the technology to mediate this is (and should be) evolving.
While my areas of interest in this topic are perhaps more along the lines of the social sciences and technology, approaching these questions through the lens of an information studies researcher is relevant as information is really the core unit of the entire education process. It also extremely helpful to be around persons actively involved in pedagogy to get their perspectives and advice on a research topic of this complexion.
U of T, itself, has started to partner with some prominent MOOC platforms to offer courses and the timing couldn't be better to understand different stakeholders' motivations for participating in the online education movement and what the future of it is likely to be.
There are various aspects of online education that I would like to investigate. One of these (probably the most interesting to me) is the actual experience of those taking MOOCs/other online courses. What is their motivation for taking certain courses, what hurdles do they encounter in terms staying engaged and making it through, and after they are done, are they satisfied? Are they, for the most part, closer to achieving the objectives that they set out for themselves at the start?
The iSchool, being so multidisciplinary and focusing on projects at the intersection of information, technology and society, is the perfect place to carry out work of this nature. The issue I'm looking at is the impact of readily accessible knowledge/information (by way of tangible skills and other kinds of learning) on society and how the technology to mediate this is (and should be) evolving.
While my areas of interest in this topic are perhaps more along the lines of the social sciences and technology, approaching these questions through the lens of an information studies researcher is relevant as information is really the core unit of the entire education process. It also extremely helpful to be around persons actively involved in pedagogy to get their perspectives and advice on a research topic of this complexion.
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