I have been interested in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) for a while now (and at one time wanted to do my MEd project on them), so this year I have decided to try out a few different ones, from a variety of different educational institutions, and then possible write a paper about it – which would be tentatively titled “The Year of Living Business MOOCs Dangerously.” Today I finished The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Coursera’s “Entrepreneurship, a 5-course specialization by University of Pennsylvania on Coursera. Specialization Certificate earned on August 29, 2016.” It was a series of 4 Entrepreneurship classes and a Capstone class.
The technology used was nothing breakthrough or revolutionary (videos and quizzes), the weekly quizzes had mistakes and bad wording, sometimes links to sites did not work, sometimes discussion questions were not answered by the teaching assistant, we never knew who the teaching assistant was (was he from Wharton or Coursera? I eventually learned that he worked with Wharton Online, but had no business experience or at least none was listed on his LinkedIn page), no feedback from any of the Wharton professors (not that I expected a lot, but at least some interested in the class would have been nice), sometimes the platform did not work correctly, and so overall experience was just adequate. I was not the only participant to voice concerns about various issues in these Entrepreneurship classes. Yes, I learned how to do a Pitch Deck and learned some new Entrepreneurship information. Granted it was the first time that they have offered it, but its Wharton, so you think they would have done a better job. I was not impressed with Coursera – which truthfully I had high hopes for. Ahh well, live and learn and MOOC on!
Wharton Entrepreneurship 1 Developing the Opportunity
Wharton Entrepreneurship 2 Launching your Start-Up
Wharton Entrepreneurship 3 Growth Strategies